A Junk (1-Man) Orchestra Takes The Stage

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A Junk (1-Man) Orchestra Takes The Stage

by zak stone | Mar 16, 2010 12:02 pm

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Posted to: Arts

Zak Stone Photo Bill Ruth fashioned a banjo, or “canjo,” out of a tin can and some strings. When he plucks it, the canjo pops with a wiry resonance, reminiscent of an Arabic lute.

Its strumming will be heard on Long Wharf Theater’s stage in an upcoming play, whenever one character–a talking swallow–expresses its desire to fly south to Egypt.

Ruth’s is usually a hidden presence at Long Wharf. He’s the props designer there.

He is gearing up to take the stage at Long Wharf Theatre with an ensemble of homemade instruments, including the tin-can banjo and a musical sewing machine. His strumming, plucking, and striking of household junk will provide the score for the Long Wharf Theatre’s upcoming production of The Happy Prince, a play for children of all ages.

Ruth will step out from behind the scenes to take the stage as narrator and musical director of an original adaptation of the classic children’s story by Irish playwright Oscar Wilde. The production is the work of Long Wharf’s Next Stage Program, a fellowship program for young theater professionals. The play is directed by Associate Artistic Director Eric Ting and will show twice on April 3 on Long Wharf’s main stage.
Ruth will set a tone of whimsy for the fairy tale, with his ensemble of fanciful musical creations. He fashioned a banjo, or “canjo,” out of a tin can and some strings. When he plucks it, the canjo pops with a wiry resonance, reminiscent of an Arabic lute. It’s strumming will return throughout the piece, whenever one character–a talking swallow–expresses its desire to fly south to Egypt.

Another instrument, the “musical seamstress” is an old fashioned sewing machine that strikes a xylophone as its wheel spins. He will also find the time to play the accordion, harmonium, and keyboard, rub glasses full of water, and run a handsaw across a bow to create eerie vibrations.

The play is not all a bunch of make believe. Ruth said that it will demonstrate “somber” but important lessons, like the “value of self-sacrifice.” The story tells the tale of a prince who lived a sheltered life tucked away in his castle, only to be memorialized with a statue in the center of town upon dying. The prince’s spirit who lives on in the statue “suddenly realizes that the world is full of suffering,” Ruth said, when he sees the poverty and misery that plague the town.

The prince befriends a swallow who perches on his shoulder, and tells the swallow to take away his gold and jewels and distribute them to the town’s poor. This philanthropic plan ends badly for both. The swallow dies because he is too busy to fly south for the winter, while the prince’s statue is torn down when he becomes too plain for the tastes of the townspeople.

At the end of the play, “you’re left with the dead bird and the prince’s heart, which is the only thing they couldn’t melt down,” Ruth said. In the epilogue, angels descend to earth, collect the heart and a feather from the bird, and bring them back to god as examples of earth’s most precious things.

Ruth considers the production “pretty ambitious” seeing as the company derived it from a children’s book which “doesn’t lend itself to theater necessarily,” he said. Ruth will play the narrator—“an Oscar Wilde character—who reads the story while a cast of five “high clowns” clowns enact it, he said.

The clowns are meant to invoke a “pure, childlike quality” and will alternate among the roles of the prince, the sparrow, and other characters, Ruth said. Some of the clowns will sing lyrics from an original composition by Ruth: a doo-wop love song between the bird a bird and a reed of grass. It goes, “This is absurd, she’s a plant and he’s a bird / Why can’t he see, her family tree is actually a tree.”

The production is the collaborative effort of Long Wharf’s Next State Program residents, a group of young artists who work at Long Wharf for a year to gain experience in the theater industry. Artistic Resident Erin Treat said it would be a “magical production” for kids, yet full of “references that the parents will get.” The company selected The Happy Prince as their favorite children’s story, after each member brought in a story for consideration, she said.

Director Eric Ting called the performance “as great a celebration of theatricality as it could possibly be” and a tribute to the “transformative power of storytelling.” He said that he was excited to present the work of the “artists of tomorrow” for the “audiences of tomorrow”: New Haven’s children.

Long Wharf does not have a long history of work for young viewers and is confronted with the problem of an “aging” audience, Ting said. He said that the theater world needs to take responsibility for producing more works that will engage young people in theater from an early age.

This play will show children “the imagination’s ability to create something out of nothing,” he said. Not to mention musical instruments out of clutter.

The play is showing April 3 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. To reserve free tickets, call (203) 787-4282.

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