Up next at The Wilma Theater an all new production of The Good Person of Setzuan by Bertolt Brecht. Working with a version adapted by playwright Tony Kushner, Brecht’s timeless story, written in 1941, is retold through the direction of Wilma HotHouse Company member Justin Jain (also the first HotHouse member to direct a Wilma production). Below, Justin talks about why he wanted to take on the role of director and the importance of collaborating with the HotHouse members to bring this vision to life, the carefully chosen original live music we hear in the show, and why- as an AAPI theatre maker- he turned Brecht’s Setzuan into an Asian-bodied world while honoring the story and reclaiming the space with his own voice and experiences.
Q: Were you familiar with The Good Person of Szechwan before you joined the Wilma production?
A: I first fell in love with Brecht when I was in college at The University of the Arts, during my studies of theatre history in my first year and then later through my Acting Studio professor, Rick Stoppleworth. In my senior year, Rick cast me in a Brecht musical called The Seven Deadly Sins. Throughout this whole period, from first year to last, I was constantly engaged with Brecht and part of that was discovering the world of The Good Person of Setzuan, among all his other mind-bending plays.
Q: Why was this play chosen for the 23-24 season and how does it fit in with the rest of the shows we’ve seen at Wilma this year?
A: The Wilma approached me about directing for this season back in 2021, on the heels of my acclaimed production of The Chinese Lady at InterAct Theatre Company. The impetus was about bringing forward a HotHouse-led (The Wilma’s resident Company of Artists) project that featured the breadth of voices and work we do. I had workshopped and auditioned a few pieces for this – looking at a mixture of new plays and American classics, but nothing was quite sticking. I decided to pivot to thinking about work that would embrace my identity and speak to my experience as an Asian-American theatre artist. Because I was the only AAPI HotHouse member at the time, I was limited in how I could do this, until I thought back to Brecht and this play. I was intrigued by how this old dead German guy wrote a play for his German ensemble, set in far-off China. That smashing of culture felt like a playground I wanted to dive into and one that could hold space for our ensemble. Doubly, I was entrenched in trying to find a play that spoke perfectly to the here and now. When I wrestled with the play’s sentiment around what goodness means and who gets to benefit from that, I was shocked at how relevant everything felt – maybe more so than some of the contemporary plays I was reading.
When I brought the proposal to the Wilma Artistic team, they were immediately hooked. As it so happens, this play follows its predecessors in this season of what I think of as a “heroes against all odds” offering of plays. All four plays The Wilma has selected for this season, including The Good Person of Setzuan, follow a titular character caught in the tornado of a system, family, or culture, and trying against all odds to change the world around them. It is a stark centering of the individual in reaction to the turbulent collective, which I think is a very smart and poignant investigation of what it means to be an American in this moment.
Q: You’re the first Wilma HotHouse member to also direct a show at Wilma. Why did you want to take on this role in the production?
A: I LOVE directing – the art of visioning, leading others, and sharing community in this way ignites me. Because of my upbringing, always being a marginalized “other,” I tend to have big, bold, and disruptive ideas. I bring this work into my acting, which is the arena most people know me for. But I’ve always been a director and devisor – both with my University students and with my own theatre company, The Berserker Residents. It wasn’t until just pre-pandemic that my theatre community started to invite me to direct on the regional and small theatre scale. I had to get loud about wanting those opportunities – I was tired of having the same homogenous voices uplifted time and again on the bigger stages. Now, having directed at The Arden, InterAct, and 1812 Productions (among others), it made sense for me to practice my craft in my own home at The Wilma. I wanted to take on this role because it meant I could take wild and expressive risks with people I deeply trust and have a shorthand with. It was, and continues to be, an honor to lead my fellow company members in this way. I hope this sets a precedent to see us in many other artistic capacities at the theatre for years to come.
Q: Can you talk more about Wilma’s HotHouse Acting Company? How did they help to develop The Good Person of Szechuan? Why is it important for the Company to be a part of this process?
A: The Wilma HotHouse is a group of process-oriented theatre artists from all kinds of backgrounds engaged in the pursuit of deeper and more expansive theatrical expression. We train our bodies and voices regularly together, as well as workshop material and collaborate with and train under guest artists from all over the world. Throughout the theatre season, we meet once a week to spend a day engaged in this pursuit. The Good Person of Setzuan has been workshopped, experimented with, and investigated several times in these sessions, enabling me to discover the world and vocabulary of this particular project. The company has helped me test out ideas, break through creative blocks, and give endless insight into the nuances of the piece. None of this would be possible without having this community of artists – folks I know intimately and who I trust in every sense of the word. Because we have worked together so rigorously, we have nothing to prove to one another, no agenda other than to push ourselves and the boundaries of what is possible. What a gift! I want to share that with the world and shout it from the rooftops. That’s why the vitality of the company is integral to this work.
Q: The play was written by Bertolt Brecht in 1941 and the version we see on stage is based on Tony Kushner’s 1997 adaptation. How will you be honoring both playwrights while retelling the story with a new vision?
A: Of all the translations I encountered prepping for this production, the Tony Kushner version felt the most immediate – capturing the deep humor and ethos of what I believe to be Brecht’s original voice. I’m continually struck by how this play from the 1940s has complete relevance today. I mean, who can’t relate to feeling like they’re trying their best to be a good person despite the world around them dissolving into division, chaos, and ever-diminishing resources? This is what is at the heart of the work – a human soul trying to help their neighbor, love their lover, and keep their child from want. It sounds easy enough, but put that into the world we live in and immediately it becomes evident that the systems we built for ourselves conspire to put all of these at odds with one another. This thesis of the work is amplified in Kushner’s playful language and is what I hope to continue to honor with this production.
I’m also embracing much of the “Brechtian” style of theatre-making. But I’m also curious about how to make Epic Theatre for a contemporary audience when much of what we consume in The Culture is already alienating and strange. So I’m experimenting with the company’s ways of honoring the traditions before us and opening doorways to new modes of investigating the work. One of the biggest ways I’m doing that is by embracing the irreverence and violence with which Brecht charges into an Asian-bodied world. This play has, for decades, perpetuated a space for AAPI characters to be “exotic” and “wild,” thereby allowing the audience to think “Ah, that’s not me, so I can sit in judgment of them.” This is quintessential Brecht. I both want to honor that and reclaim this space for my voice.
My Setzuan is a doubling-down on exploring the extremity of Asian-American representation onstage and I want to play upon the audience’s cultural ignorance and awareness, as my Brechtian tool for alienation. Because of this, I have assembled an all-star team of AAPI theatre, dance, and music artists to collaborate with the Wilma HotHouse. I’m smashing culture together to become the material of the production with which to paint, crafting a world that resembles a “pan-Asian Narnia” – a Setzuan where Korean and Vietnamese languages are spoken interchangeably, the setting is a South Asian slum, Mandarin songs waft through the air, and Filipino folk dances invade the action of the story. A space that both invites you to share culture and challenges you to wrestle with your relationship to it, all while honoring the narrative at hand.
Q: What genres of music will be heard and how do they relate to the story? Why did you decide to include original music in this new production?
A: Composers Mel Hsu and Jordan McCree are the musical geniuses behind this production. Both hail primarily from the music world, with theatre being a secondary practice. This was appealing to me because I’m not interested in safe or traditional music for the stage. I want the audience’s ears to be piqued by sounds and voices that feel like they are in the contemporary vernacular. At the same time, I wanted music that felt nimble and slippery – never quite landing on a genre or tone. So, at one moment, the music can be percussive and driving, much like a rap song; ethereal and mysterious like a dream; or insistent and measured like an American folk tune. These, and more, live in the world of this production. Added to this, we embrace many traditional Asian instruments – a set of bells is our musical spine, gongs punctuate the action, and the guzheng heralds the entrance of characters. It all points to placing the audience in the idea of a specific place, rather than an authentic expression, so that we may continue to grapple with being in present-day America and engaging with the material onstage.
Q: What do you hope audiences will take away from the story?
A: Brecht’s original drive as a theatre artist was to ignite his audiences; to spur them toward action. He did this by challenging his audiences to be thinking, reactive, and engaged participants in the work. He abhorred passive theatre, that of escape, the theatre of emotions, and naturalism. With The Good Person of Setzuan, he is begging us to leave the theatre and illicit Change in the world. That capital-C kind of Change. The kind that only you, as you sit in your theatre seat, can idiosyncratically identify for yourself. He wants us to do better. I hope this production pushes all of us, even an inch, closer towards this.
The Good Person of Setzuan runs from April 2nd to 21st. Tickets are available here. A special AAPI Affinity Night will take place on April 3rd, info can be found on the Wilma Theater website.
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