2008 Woodie Awards
YCDS Spring 2005 Performs the Teahouse of The August Moon
Menachem Wecker
Issue date: 5/16/05 Section: Arts & Culture
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The Spring 2005 Yeshiva College Dramatics Society production of "Teahouse of The August Moon" unfortunately just missed our deadline for the last issue of the Commentator, so here we finally have it, better late than never.
In the past, I have been critical of YCDS almost exclusively. Sure I championed Dov as the greatest thing since unsliced bread on stage, and I considered myself an admirer of Yaron's and Avi's and a few others', but I made up for it in my critique of their peers. Perhaps I should attribute my feelings about "Teahouse" to the ending of my YU tenure and my desire to leave on good terms, but I prefer to attribute it to a really good production.
"Teahouse" tells the tale of an American soldier, Captain Fisby, sent to a post-World War II village, Tobiki, on the island of Okinawa. His mission? To Americanize (democratize in polite-speak) the natives. Fate and the natives have a teahouse in store for him in place of the schools and other "gifts" from democracy, and the tale takes a turn for the absurd.
Simply put, "Teahouse" was quite funny at times. Elliot Schiff (YCDS president) as Sakini spoke with a believable accent, his body movements were completely convincing and he had a way of controlling the stage even in between his lines. Sakini is the native guide assigned to Fisby by the abusive, loud Colonel Purdy (David Mikofsky), and Sakini manages to manipulate matters to his advantage, though his desires to join Fisby in America post-denouement come up empty handed.
"Teahouse" brought a live parrot onstage and a snake through the audience, and though those components seemed quite unnecessary in a way-we heard rumors of trained monkeys, but alas!-the bizarre aspect of the scene where Sakini overloads Fisby's wagon with people and animals recalls the Yiddish folktale, "It Could Always Be Worse." Fisby is promised a jeep and instead discovers that Sakini intends to pull him in a cart with much company. The Baroque aspect of the scene calls for the animals in a way.
At the performance I attended, I saw President Joel and Professor Vincent Chiappetta (Biology). Joel did not laugh at many of the jokes, though Chiappetta seemed to fall out of his chair at times. I caught up with Chiappetta during the intermission, and he confirmed some of the biological references in the play. He told me he was enjoying himself. After the play, Joel told me he thought it was great that such performances occurred at YU.
In a way, Sakini and the Okinawians represent good metaphors for what YCDS has managed to pull off in this production. Just as the Okinawa people trick the American army into making them a tea house rather than schools, YCDS works with many externally imposed restrictions ("All accessories used in the production of The Teahouse of the August Moon, including hairpieces, costumes, and food, are in strict accordance with Jewish tradition," thus the program), it has managed to achieve maximum mobility within that quarantined space.
In the past, I have been critical of YCDS almost exclusively. Sure I championed Dov as the greatest thing since unsliced bread on stage, and I considered myself an admirer of Yaron's and Avi's and a few others', but I made up for it in my critique of their peers. Perhaps I should attribute my feelings about "Teahouse" to the ending of my YU tenure and my desire to leave on good terms, but I prefer to attribute it to a really good production.
"Teahouse" tells the tale of an American soldier, Captain Fisby, sent to a post-World War II village, Tobiki, on the island of Okinawa. His mission? To Americanize (democratize in polite-speak) the natives. Fate and the natives have a teahouse in store for him in place of the schools and other "gifts" from democracy, and the tale takes a turn for the absurd.
Simply put, "Teahouse" was quite funny at times. Elliot Schiff (YCDS president) as Sakini spoke with a believable accent, his body movements were completely convincing and he had a way of controlling the stage even in between his lines. Sakini is the native guide assigned to Fisby by the abusive, loud Colonel Purdy (David Mikofsky), and Sakini manages to manipulate matters to his advantage, though his desires to join Fisby in America post-denouement come up empty handed.
"Teahouse" brought a live parrot onstage and a snake through the audience, and though those components seemed quite unnecessary in a way-we heard rumors of trained monkeys, but alas!-the bizarre aspect of the scene where Sakini overloads Fisby's wagon with people and animals recalls the Yiddish folktale, "It Could Always Be Worse." Fisby is promised a jeep and instead discovers that Sakini intends to pull him in a cart with much company. The Baroque aspect of the scene calls for the animals in a way.
At the performance I attended, I saw President Joel and Professor Vincent Chiappetta (Biology). Joel did not laugh at many of the jokes, though Chiappetta seemed to fall out of his chair at times. I caught up with Chiappetta during the intermission, and he confirmed some of the biological references in the play. He told me he was enjoying himself. After the play, Joel told me he thought it was great that such performances occurred at YU.
In a way, Sakini and the Okinawians represent good metaphors for what YCDS has managed to pull off in this production. Just as the Okinawa people trick the American army into making them a tea house rather than schools, YCDS works with many externally imposed restrictions ("All accessories used in the production of The Teahouse of the August Moon, including hairpieces, costumes, and food, are in strict accordance with Jewish tradition," thus the program), it has managed to achieve maximum mobility within that quarantined space.
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