The Chalk Cycle | Theatre at W97
The CHalk Cycle
Written by Claire Conceison
Produced by MIT Music and Theatre Arts at the Theatre at W97
Directed by Claire Conceison
Scenic Design by Sara Brown
Lighting and Video Design by Josh Higgason
Costume Design by Brooke Stanton
Sound Design by Brendan F Doyle
Images Courtesy of Daniel K Landez
This excerpt is from a recording of a dress rehearsal of The Chalk Cycle in October 2018. As we hear the conclusion of our third story, that of Anne Mae He and the battle for custody of her between two sets of loving parents, The Actor Playing the Judge wraps up the tale calling for the child to be brought in, as each previous part has ended; but this time, a cacophony of sounds sweeps around the room. As the performers abandon their costumes and props to return to a neutral base look, the set is stripped away, and we hear a sonic recap of the three stories so far. We hear dialogue and the violin music first heard in earlier sections, sound effects that had been used previously to establish setting, the music of Dar Williams, and the voice of The Child, who appears now for the first time.
Two mothers fight for the same child they both call daughter, as lawyers address the audience
Production Overview
The Chalk Cycle was a retelling of several stories all centered around the themes of motherhood and the struggle to provide the best life for a child. Weaving together Judge Bao’s Clever Trick from 13th Century China, Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle (itself based upon the Yuan Dynasty drama,) and the true story of the custody case over Anna Mae He from the early part of the 21st century in Tennessee. The play featured five student performers who portrayed the archetypal roles found in each of these stories and provided musical underscoring with a pair of violins. Interspersed throughout the play was the music of Dar Williams, both as transitional and interstitial music.
Design Concept
The sound design for Chalk Cycle used techniques from each of the theatre practices the stories are pulled from. For the Chinese zaju of Part 1, comedic moments were accentuated with over-sized sound cues to stand in for props. In the Epic theatre portion of Part 2, sound cues were used to establish the changing environments as Grusha struggles to protect the child from war and sequesters it in the mountains. During Part 3’s Documentary section, recordings of media related to the case were interspersed with the action onstage. Interviews with Anna Mae He and both of her families, as well as court decisions and news broadcasts from the era provided breaks in the onstage action.
Azdak drunkenly presiding over the custody battle between Natella and Grusha
The Child is caught inside the circle of chalk, and between both mothers
System Design
The loudspeakers for this system were arrayed in a series of three rings. One set of eight placed underneath the seating platforms; and two more sets of four in the grid, one encircling the playing space and one around the perimeter of the room. This arrangement allowed for sounds to wrap around the audience, pass underneath them, and to inhabit a variety of positions in the onstage world. This emphasized the themes of perspective throughout the play, and was vital to create an immersive design that could provide shifts in perspective by changing the orientation of sounds in relation to the audience.