Dessa Rose???

[Quasi]

Posted: 1/9/06 at 11:17am

So finally I am listening to this CD and I am wondering how they changed this fast between Old Ruth and Young Ruth (both Rachel York) and Old Dessa and Young Dessa (both La Chanze). How did they make it on stage?

Could somebody explain?

Thanks

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 1/9/06 at 11:26am

It wasn't done with makeup. The actors made themselves look older by distorting their body movements, mostly by hunching over, talking in "an old lady voice", and usually putting a shawl over their shoulders.

It was the main problem with the show, in my opinion.

[Quasi]

Posted: 1/9/06 at 11:31am

Okay, so it was nothing spectacular?
Thanks very much.

[BobbyBubby]

Posted: 1/9/06 at 11:40am

Well, there really is not time for either woman to go off stage, put makeup on, and come back. That probably would have been worse than their final choice. I think the main problem was making the 2 main characters the narrators. It was a tired device, that didn't really suit the material.

Since you saw Dessa in old age early on, all suspense was eliminated. I really wanted to worry and care about her but since I knew she lived to be old, I seemed to care less about the outcome, because it was told to me in the first moments of the show.

[iluvtheatertrash]

Posted: 1/9/06 at 12:29pm

I quite enjoyed this technqiue actually, since York and LaChanze delivered it so beautifully.

[apdarcey]

Posted: 1/9/06 at 12:37pm

i loved the device due to the nature of handing down stories in an oral tradition, which their characters would have had to do.

however, i see bobby's point and noted the same thing.

[GYPSY1527]

Posted: 1/9/06 at 1:01pm

For myself, I thoroughly enjoyed the show in every aspect of the production. I saw the show three times (woulh have seen it more if it lasted longer). Though the technique used gave away the ending, I felt it allowed you to focus on and appreciate the two women's journey through life.

[dancingthrulife04]

Posted: 1/9/06 at 3:31pm

I'm still waiting for my CD to come in the mail.

[lovesclassics]

Posted: 1/9/06 at 5:28pm

I thought the device of using Dessa Rose and Ruth as elderly narrators worked beautifully for this show. I agree with apdarcey that the whole story is based on oral traditions. Much of black history and women's history would have been lost had it not been for the storytelling passed on through the generations. In DESSA ROSE, you get a palpable sense of what these women went through and how their impact on one another lasted their whole lives.

I don't think any drama was lost at all by knowing that the women survived. I again agree with apdarcey that the focus was on the growth of the women as individuals and their relationship. And there WAS a dramatic build-up in wanting to know what direction their lives took. Do they stay together? Where do they end up? What about Nathan and Ruth? Do their daughters grow up together? Having read the book, the ending came as a surprise to me. In the book, Dessa's child is a boy, and the naming happens about halfway through the story. The way Lynn Ahrens incorporated that element into the stage production was a stroke of genius.

The ways in which LaChanze and Rachel York moved back and forth between their younger and elderly selves on stage were seamless and graceful. Their vocal and postural changes seemed very natural, and their personalities shone through beautifully. In listening to the CD, it's amazing to me how they are able to communicate all the nuances of their performances using voice alone. Nothing is lost, in my opinion.

In fact, in listening to the CD I came to realize that the eldery women DON'T narrate that much of the show. The use of the device was quite judicious on the part of Lynn Ahrens. It adds to the emotional impact by letting us react to the drama of the young women being acted out and by bringing us inside the minds of the old women as they relive their own pasts. I thought it was quite effective.

DESSA ROSE definitely breaks from musical theater convention. It is more of a dramatic oral history set to music than a traditional book musical, but for me, it was very moving. In all honesty, it's quite possibly the most powerful musical theater experience I have ever had - and I have been seeing shows of all kinds for more than 30 years. I wish it long life in regional theater.

LC

[apdarcey]

Posted: 1/9/06 at 5:56pm

lc, you are a master of words!

also, i tried to pm but you don't accept them... you've been a member here much longer than 10/7/05, as it states under your name, no?

[lovesclassics]

Posted: 1/9/06 at 6:18pm

apdarcey,

Thanks for the compliment! I do enjoy writing. And you are right. I have been a member for much longer than my joined date states. There was a mix up with my log in information, and I had to register a second time. I have been on the boards for a year and a half.

Let me enable my pm feature. I'd love to hear from you.

LC

[hannahshule]

Posted: 1/10/06 at 7:30pm

LC!
I tried to PM you also (about the yahoo board) but you're not accepting. Just some emal trouble, I hope it'll be fixed soon. I hope you're enjoying the DR cd as much as I am!

[hannahshule]

Posted: 1/10/06 at 7:37pm

bump

[best12bars]

Posted: 1/10/06 at 7:40pm

Anyone else think this show title sounds like you're talking about a certain witch's sister... but with a cold?


* ducks *

[lovesclassics]

Posted: 1/10/06 at 7:45pm

Ahhhhh!

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 1/10/06 at 9:45pm

"So finally I am listening to this CD and I am wondering how they changed this fast between Old Ruth and Young Ruth (both Rachel York) and Old Dessa and Young Dessa (both La Chanze). How did they make it on stage?"

They sucked their gums. It was about as unspectacular as you can get. Dumb, dumb, dumb. The show is a non-starter that's dead in the water by the end of its opening number.

Mayella Ewell
Maycomb, Alabama





Updated On: 1/11/06 at 09:45 PM

[lovesclassics]

Posted: 1/10/06 at 10:16pm

Well, that was constructive. Updated On: 1/10/06 at 10:16 PM

[TheEnchantedHunter]

Posted: 1/11/06 at 12:18am

Darlin,' I'm not a critic and have no obligation to be constructive. In addition, as an audience member, I've already fulfilled my obligation: I PAID FOR THE TICKET, which entitles me to my observation.


Gertrude Slecynski
Wisconsin



Updated On: 1/11/06 at 12:18 AM

[Plum]

Posted: 1/11/06 at 1:32am

I actually really liked the opening number of the show- if I ever get the CD, it will be for that song. (It's "We Are Descended", right?)

But really, I have to say that the old/young transitions, and the use of the elderly Ruth and Dessa in general, just didn't work for me. There was way too much exposition where there should have been action, especially in the first act. Yes, I know "oral tradition" was a theme, but I don't think that justifies something that works so poorly onstage. They could have just shown the elderly Ruth and Dessa at the end or something.

Rachel York was magnificent, and Kenita Miller, who was in that day, was wonderful in her part as well, but even they couldn't prop that material up completely.

And yes, apdarcey, I know this is an old, old disagreement between us.

[aegeusrocks]

Posted: 1/11/06 at 2:13am

I actually saw the only other production that's happened so far of Dessa Rose, at least Ahrens and Flaherty's unofficial website says so, thus I'm led to believe it is, at Apple Tree Theater in my city. They didn't use the "old Dessa" and "old Ruth" narration devices, and simply narrated as Dessa and Ruth. And as much as I loved the original Dessa Rose when I saw it in New York, this new way worked much, much better than the original device. Not to mention the simple set here added to the "folktale/oral tradition" aspect as compared to the overly complicated "slave house" design at the Newhouse. But that's just my opinion: overall, the musical was either just as good here, if not better because of those changed aspects.

[Jazzysuite82]

Posted: 1/11/06 at 2:19am

They must have had to cut things then. I'm not sure that's legal. Unless Lynn and Steve revised it. There are direct references to age in the show.

[aegeusrocks]

Posted: 1/11/06 at 2:22am

Yes there were the references, and it was a completely legal production, I assure you. But it was Daniele's choice to have them transform back and forth so suddenly in the Newhouse staging. The director for the production I saw used them more in the sense of being a "presence" on the stage, where they didn't really detract from the scene itself because of the staging, but rather narrated from different corners of the stage.

[Jazzysuite82]

Posted: 1/11/06 at 2:26am

hmm that's weird. If I saw an actor say at the top of the show "At this age my mind wanders." I would immediatly say... "what age?!" I personally feel that playing the age was what sold me on Rachel York's performance. It just reinforeced the sense of "storytelling" for me. That's what Ahrens and Flaherty have been doing forever. Very once on this island-esque

[aegeusrocks]

Posted: 1/11/06 at 2:30am

I completely agree with you on being sold by the age with Ms. York's and LaChanze's performances. It's difficult to explain how the differnet staging made it better...I think it had something to do with the flow and connection between the weaving of the stories. It was still very "storytelling"-esque, just in a different way than the age transformation.

::ETA:: The bed beckons to me. I hate to disrupt conversations, but I simply must go to sleep, as the ever-present school "needs" attending. Oy. Well, have a good night, Jazzysuite. Updated On: 1/11/06 at 02:30 AM

[Jazzysuite82]

Posted: 1/11/06 at 2:32am

I suppose it would make the production much less literal. I think Steve Suskin said that he thought that was what was wrong with the show. It was staged too literally.