"The Tender Land"
The famous American composer Aaron Copland is best known for his ballets "Appalachian Spring," "Rodeo" and "Billy the Kid." This weekend, one of his neglected gems, the opera "The Tender Land" will be performed at Shaw Theatre at Western Michigan University. WMUK's Cara Lieurance visited rehearsal to speak with director Alice Pierce.
The Tender Land was written by Aaron Copland in the early 1950s. Copland wrote his music to words by his partner, librettist Erik Johns, whose inspiration was the groundbreaking 1941 book, "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men." Written by journalist James Agee, it featured Walker Evans' Depression-era photographs of farm families in the Dust Belt. At a recent rehearsal, director Alice Piece said poverty is a central theme in the opera.
[Alice Pierce] "Yes, they are poor, but they are real people. They have joys, they have sorrows. The juxtaposition of poverty and the beauty of nature seems to be a theme that's a little bit prevalent in our choosing of the set and the costumes. And it kind of goes with the music too; the music is sometimes so beautiful, and then sometimes it's so jarring."
When The Tender Land begins, it's spring planting season on the Moss family farm in the 1930s. Grandpa Moss is allowing his small family, consisting of a middle-aged daughter and two grand-daughters, the luxury of a graduation party for his eldest granddaughter Laurie. She will be the first ever to graduate high school. At the party are two migrant farm labourers, one of whom is deeply drawn to Laurie.
[Alice Pierce] "Martin falls in love with Laurie, and so this very young romance begins to develop. Grandpa sniffs this, he gets ahold of it, stops the party, banishes the young man, without really any proof that they've done any wrong.
WMU senior, baritone Joe Johnson is preparing his role as Grandpa Moss.
[Joe Johnson] "The people he cares about, he loves them more than anything, but he doesn't trust them enough to let them decide for themselves.. There's a lot of things in the opera that they don't really talk about but they sort of hint at. Such as, Ma Moss, who is Grandpa Moss's daughter, and Laurie, the main character's mother. She doesn't have a husband, and they never really talk about it. And so I personally think that maybe something like this has happened before. That's maybe one of the reasons why he is personally so vehement when Laurie and Martin, he catches them kissing, and he just can't take it."
[Alice Pierce] " Laurie has a lot to say about how she thinks it's important for her to be able to love the way she wants to be able to love. Which is also something that Copland was fighting at this time in his life.
[Cara Lieurance] "As a homosexual man."
[Alice Pierce] Exactly. And you know, it wasn't such a prevalent, known sort of thing that people talked about back then. So, even though this is a heterosexual couple, it's still important that she wants to make the choice to love who she wants to love. She's young, she's very rebellious, it's a lot to do with seventeen year old or eighteen year old girls who run away from home, and they leave on bad terms with their parents.
Director Alice Pierce says that while the ending of the Tender Land is bittersweet, the story has a timelessness, with themes to which we can all relate.
[Alice Pierce] "It's a simple libretto, and it's evocative of the scenery, the big skies, the wheat fields, things that people in the midwest can really empathize with. And the music, if you can not be in a hurry with this piece, the music will really sweep you away. It has some just stunning moments."
Aaron Copland's opera The Tender Land is a joint collaboration of the Western Michigan University School of Music and Department of Theatre. It runs this Thursday through Sunday in Shaw Theatre.
"For Colored Girls"
The play “For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow is Enuf” premiers this weekend at the Black Culture Center in Kalamazoo. The play by Ntozake Shange is made up of a series of poems about the experiences of African American women. The poems are told through seven female characters who correspond to a different color, like this poem from ‘Lady in Red’ who speaks to her abusive lover.
The poems in the play talk about some of the issues African-American women —and women in general— deal with, like discrimination, love, abandonment, and problems with childcare. But these aren’t just cold readings, there’s also singing, dancing, and some choreography. This is one of the reasons the play is called a choreopoem. Black Culture Center Director Sidney Ellis says the other reason is…
[Sidney Ellis]“It’s not necessarily a play that goes from one beginning to an end. Each poem has a beginning and an end, but it’s a series of poems put together in a way to show the meaning of those colors in those women. So, I believe the word ‘choreopoem’ is saying that it is a poem that’s choreographed as a dance would be or as a song would be.”
Though the poems discuss serious topics, each poem is presented in a variety of moods that help to create movement throughout the play. One example is the energetic poem “Hola My Papi.”
Actress Monteze Morales says the poem is about a bi-racial woman who is having trouble finding her place in the Latino community. Morales says, as a bi-racial woman herself, she understands this identity struggle.
[Monteze Morales] “I was never black enough. I was never Puerto Rican enough. And in this piece, she’s dancing. She has the salsa in her, but she doesn’t understand what people are saying. So there’s Spanish language going on the air. They can see that she’s Hispanic, but she doesn’t know what’s going on. She’s just like ‘If dance was proof of origin, I am the Puerto Rican.”
But you don’t have to be black or latina to find meaning in “For Colored Girls.” Actress and WMU alum Cassaundra Cemoune says the most important thing about the play is that all women can relate to what the characters feel in some way.
[Cassaundra Cemoune] “It goes across the board. There’s some nugget in it that some woman can relate to. Even though it’s called ‘For Colored Girls,’ I don’t think that ‘colored’ is necessarily related to African-American. It’s just the various colors that we come in, the various colors of our stories, the various colors of our experiences.”
The play is a feminist piece, but Black Culture Center Director Sidney Ellis says it is important for men to see the play as well.
[Sidney Ellis]“Every man that’s in this community has relationships with their mother, their sister, their wife, girlfriend, or just female friend. And the play not only portrays images of women for women, but it gives men a better understanding of what these women are thinking during these particular situations. And that will help you, as a man, the women that are around you.”
Other Events:
Author of “Looking for Hickories,” Tom Springer will speak at Kellogg Community College in Battle Creek today at 8:30 a.m.
On Thursday, author William Olsen will visit Kalamazoo Valley Community College. Olsen is the author of poetry collections like “The Hand of God” and “Few Bright Flowers.” Olsen will present a craft talk at 10 a.m. and then read some of his work at 2:15 p.m.
Take a free public tour of the Kalamazoo Institute of Art’s collection of works from African American Artists. The tour starts at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday.
The performance of Symphonie Fantastique by the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra will be this Friday at 8 p.m. Symphonie Fantastique features Marc-Andre Hamlin on piano.
