By NICHOLAS WESTRATE

How do eight actors in a bare room put on a classical play? That is the question that director Sam Gold has been asking members of the fourth-year class (myself included) since the beginning of the school year. The play in question is Christopher Marlowe's Edward II, which Group 35 will be presenting this month as the final production of our long tenure in the Drama Division. The last project in the season is always bittersweet, but our four years at Juilliard could not end on a higher note.

A preliminary set model for Juilliard's production of Edward II, designed by Andrew Lieberman. (Photo by Andrew Lieberman)

Although Edward II does not open until February 18, we've been working on it since September. Complications in the busy centennial schedule meant the production has had a very different rehearsal period from any previous fourth-year show. It was still prepared in the usual six weeks, but about three of those weeks were in September, providing an early "workshop" period that inspired a way of approaching a classic that has yet to be seen in the Juilliard Drama Theater in its 38-year history.

Sam Gold has been a directing fellow at Juilliard for three years, during which he has worked extensively with Group 35, the current graduating class—observing classes, assisting in rehearsals, and even directing some of us in our third-year production of Shakespeare's What You Will [Twelfth Night]. He has become a valuable and trusted member of our ensemble. After being invited to join the elite roster of directors for Juilliard's centennial season, Gold was asked to find a play with seven men and one woman in it.

"It took a while," Gold told me over coffee in early January, "but I finally found a play that had great roles for each of you. It seemed prescient, a great story to tell." In fact, Edward II has a great many more than seven men and one woman in it, and is usually performed by repertory companies around the world with enormous casts, large sets, fur-lined robes, and big metal swords. This is not the kind of production you should expect from Gold, whose theatrical roots are imbedded deeply with the world-renowned, innovative performance ensemble, the Wooster Group.

"I have really been trying to examine how we approach classical plays," Sam explained between sips of coffee, "questioning the more tired conventions, trying to make it topical, while still using really great classically trained actors—like you guys." And this is exactly how we started work on this tale of a new king who throws away the reins of power for the love of another man.

Yes, more than 400 years before there was Brokeback Mountain, there was Edward II. Christopher Marlowe was an extremely political writer, far more overtly so than his rival, William Shakespeare, and many still believe that he was murdered for it. Marlowe was stabbed to death in a bar brawl at 29. Whether it was over the amount of a bill or his alleged involvement with English espionage is still unknown. Marlowe was known for his bravado and risky behavior, so both scenarios seem plausible.

Christopher Marlowe's Edward II Drama Theater Saturday-Thursday, Feb. 18-23 For time and ticket information, please see the calendar.

Shakespeare's genius lay in the fact that one never quite knew on which side of any particular issue he fell—and it remains quite the mystery. Marlowe, however, had absolutely no reservations about expressing his point of view. He used to proclaim that Jesus and St. John used each other "as the sinners of Sodom," that the New Testament of the Bible was "filthily written," and that he would have created a more "admirable" religion.

He invited controversy with open arms. Perhaps his involvement as a government spy protected him from personal censure. All this being said, Edward II did not argue for gay rights in Elizabethan England; the play's political questions are varied and run deep, but do not include such modern matters as homosexual matrimony or adoption. Marlowe was a gay man who made a historic homosexual king his protagonist in order to tackle many issues, both political and religious.

Some directors make Edward II into a play about gay activism, or attempt to make a queer statement with it, as Derek Jarman did in his film version of the play in 1991. Our production does neither of these things. It is as much about the actors in the play as the characters in the story.

Sam put us in a bare room with tables and chairs, and we figured out together how to tell this story as Marlowe wrote it: inviting controversy with open arms. We had merely actors, text, and a lot of coffee to get the job done. Ensemble member Mary Rasmussen remarked on how "incredible it is to work with a young director who is really willing to take big risks with classical plays."

After the three weeks of the September workshop, the design team and drama faculty were all invited to observe our work. From this rehearsal, the designers set out to translate what they saw that day to the Drama Theater. They designed around what the director had created with the actors (although it is usually the actors who must fit into the director's and designer's vision). Thus, our Edward II is an actor-generated work.

This is how the greatest (and mostly unseen) work is created at Juilliard during the first and second years of training. Years of bare studios, sparse props, and no costuming teach an actor how to really tell a story with the director. During our workshop, the ghosts of projects past continued to inspire me in the small Studio 312. "It's everything we've been trained to do—heightened text, huge circumstances; it's political! And we all created it together," cast member Jaron Farnham commented. To revisit this kind of work at the end of our four years here has been invaluable. As Sam challenges us to question how we perform classical plays, Edward II will showcase what is perhaps the most valuable skill the Drama Division has taught us: how to continue to explore those questions.

Nicholas Westrate is a fourth-year drama student.