On Directing Assassins

On Directing Assassins
by June Abernathy

THE PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS

While Assassins might seem like an attractive piece for a theatre to consider at first glance - the Sondheim name, minimal scenery, smallish cast, gripping subject matter - it is much more of an undertaking than it would first appear.
To begin with, you have the outraged chorus of everyone from the board to the neighbors - "A musical? About Assassins? I just can't imagine what kind of musical numbers you could do. Aren't you trivializing the subject? Aren't you glorifying the Assassins?" Etc. etc. etc. One would think that musicals dealing with serious subject matter had never appeared before. Everything from West Side Story to Cabaret to Les Miz and Miss Saigon completely forgotten. Or that Sondheim was known for fluff - If you had seen Sweeney, or Pacific Overatures, or even Anyone Can Whistle, you would know that he could write a musical about Assassins without being either trivial or sentimental. Nonetheless, that first knee-jerk reaction from the uninitiated is the first hurdle - both to getting the show choice approved and to getting an audience in the seats.
Once you begin casting, you realize that not only is the cast larger than you probably thought, but you are faced with casting 9 principals, with strong vocal demands and specific physical types. (That is there for the Proprietor - an ensemble member who must nonetheless carry off the opening number). In a typical large musical, you would only be faced with casting 2 or 3 leads and another 2 or 3 seconds - and your chorus wouldn't usually need to be quite as versatile and skilled as this one does. One of the ensemble has to play a convincing Emma Goldman. Another, a panicked David Herold. Not simple. To add to the casting dilemma, the show has mostly men, which in many areas are much more difficult to come by. Everyone in the audience knows what Booth, Oswald, Fromme, and Hinckley should look like. Add to that Booth's huge vocal range, or the fact that Hinckley really needs to play the guitar, and you begin to see the difficulty. The Balladeer has to sing quite high, and ideally play a banjo and maybe a guitar. He also needs to be charming enough for the audience to identify with. Zangara has to be quite short, do a monologue in Italian, and sing a tenor A above the staff. He should also be able to go from simplistic immigrant befuddlement to palpable dangerous hostility in the blink of an eye. Find that on the corner. Moore has to sing a respectable range, master the tricky rhythms of the "Gun Song", and have tremendous comic timing while still convincingly playing a confused middle aged housewife with a dangerous streak. There are no easy roles in this show.
That "simple set" may not be so simple once you get into it. Are you using slides, as they did in the original? What kinds of images, from what sources? How literal? Setting the scene, or commenting on it? Both? Front or rear projection? But what about crossover, what about noise, where does the screen (screens?) go? How literal is the gallows? Does it lose something without real stairs? What about Byck's car? Steering wheel or no steering wheel? Who shifts the scenery? The ensemble? A crew? Do you have room? Do you have darkness? Where is the orchestra? How much room will they take up? Can the conductor see the singers, or vice versa? How much power will they need?
The show is prop hell, no doubt about it. The hand props are what place each scene and each Assassin in time and place. The guns come to mind immediately, of course. Some are described in the script. Most have to fire, although some can get away without it. How historically accurate do you have to/want to be? Hinckley is supposed to fire more than 6 times in succession - an automatic instead of a short barrelled .22? Can you get blanks for an automatic? A .22 starter pistol fires 8 shots. Is that enough? Moore used a .38 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver - yet, in the course of the play, she has to whip it in and out of her purse about a thousand times, and she fires her gun more than any other character - is a cannon like a standard S&W really a good idea? She makes reference to the caliber in the gun song, but wouldn't a snub nose police .38 work just as well? If you are historically accurate, you need at least 6 different kinds of ammunition. (7, if you pad your arsenal with starter pistols). What would that do to your budget? How big is your theatre? Can you fire Oswald's rifle, or Squeaky's .45, or even Moore's .38 without deafening the assembled? Half load, quarter load, no load blanks . . . How close are you to the audience? Is it safe to fire even a blank pistol that close?
Aside from the guns, you have period newspapers, a 1975 KFC chicken bucket, a period crutch, a period camera with working flash, a breakaway 1981 coke bottle, a realistic electric chair, edible food, a realistic stuffed dog, tons of money and a pocketwatch or two. A difficult prop show. Are you close enough to the audience for them to be able to see what someone's period newpaper says? To read Emma Goldman's pamphlet?
Costumes are similarly difficult. They certainly set the time and help define the character. Byck's Santa suit, for instance, comes from his picketing the White House on Christmas Eve of 1974, in the Santa suit with the sign described in the script. Most have practical considerations as well. Booth should have spurs, for instance. One popular theory is that he caught his spur in the bunting around the president's box when he jumped, and that is why he fell and broke his leg. How to quick change him from the opening to the barn and back? Underdress the bandaged leg and distressed shirt? Where does he pocket his gun when his coat is off? Can he sit with it in a pants pocket? If so, can he pull it from the pocket while sitting? Where does Squeaky keep her gun? In reality, she wore a leg holster. Fun look, but is it practical with a .45? Can she get it out of a robe pocket quickly to try to shoot Ford? Does she have a waistband under the robe to tuck it in? How fast does Emma Goldman need to be able to get in and out of her costume? Does she need help? What about the guy playing David Herold, or Ford?
These are just some of the practical considerations that need to be discussed and decided on early in the process. The artistic considerations await!

THE ARTISTIC CONSIDERATIONS
One of the things that makes the show great is that most Americans prefer to think of the Assassins as a collection of crazed nutballs, and the show forces you to consider things from their perspective, which often means coming to the realization that some of them had a point. It also means coming to the realization that they are not all the same - that their motives vary considerably. It is important to keep that in mind when casting and directing the show. While voices are important, and this is a typically difficult Sondheim score, complete with tricky rythms and impossible tessituras, the book is strong, and the acting is vitally important. Given the choice, go with actors who sing rather than singers who act.
As the Assassins go, it is tempting to take just the obvious choices for each character. Booth is undeniably charming, Moore is undeniably funny, etc. but don't let them just play that. Each character has that important dark side. I think that that is the reason Moore kills her dog. To remind us that she is dangerous. Make sure Booth is sufficiently racist and obsessed as well as charming and manipulative. Remind Moore and Squeaky that their attempts took place right after Watergate, and not so far enough removed from JFK, Bobby, and MLK that had they succeeded, they might well have thrown the country into a real uproar. Don't let them, (or Zangara or Byck or Guiteau) get so funny that we forget that they are dangerous.
All the same, some of the Assassins (notably Booth, Czolgosz and Byck) were voicing sentiments felt by a great many other people in the country at the time. While their solution was obviously extreme, all of them had telling and uncomfortable points to make, which the audience will find themselves agreeing with more often than they would probably like. There are many who contend that Emma Goldman not only served as inspiration for Czolgosz, but may actually have put him up to it. They have a terrific scene in the show, which leaves this possiblity open. I did a production where this was played on heavily, with Emma present at the Exposition, watching Czolgosz get in line, wrap his gun, and etc., yet she disappeared before the shot was fired. Emma Goldman scholars will disagree heartily, of course, and it may appear to dilute Czolgosz's sincere commitment, but it was fun to try.
Be careful with your modern Assassins. Audience members tend to have a very visceral reaction to the ones that they can remember first hand. Particularly Oswald, of course. You can hear audible gasps, whispers and much seat shifting when they first realize who he is, and even more when they first see that gun. There is a reason he doesn't sing, at least for this scene. Even Hinckly and Squeaky though, affect the audience in a different way than Czolgosz, or Guiteau. Scarier perhaps, because they seem much more "real" somehow.
What about the debate about using "Something Just Broke" - a song that was added for the ensemble following Scene #16 - the JFK scene. Purists will say that it wasn't used on Broadway, and that the show is about the Assassins, not the victims. Others will say that it was added by the original creators, and serves a definate purpose in allowing the audience the emotional release that they need after the impact of the JFK scene. One of the reasons for the song, and the single biggest reason in my opinion, is that there is a tendency in the show to make the Assassins too sympathetic, and the audience just hates that. They don't mind understanding their motivations, as long as you don't try to force them to agree. They get upset with the production when they feel that we are trying to justify the actions of the Assassins, probably because that is one of the things that they feared the show would try to do when they came in. The Assassins try to justify their actions, of course, but that shouldn't come across as the message of the piece.
"Something Just Broke" helps to make them feel that their emotions and sympathies are being considered. I also believe that the balladeer is key to letting the audience know that their dislikes are as valid as their sympathies. I say this not to randomly moralize, but because the other approach just doesn't work. Another important thing that the new number accomplishes is tying in the ensemble with the show. The ensemble can be used to great effect in the variety of roles that that they cover, and "Something Just Broke" makes them a better integrated part of the show. Care should be taken with the role doubling to make sure that you are not drawing an unconcious parallel where you don't want one - particularly between the Proprietor and other characters, or Emma Goldman and other characters. While the audience will accept the convention of role doubling among the ensemble, they will still feel the parallels. As I mentioned above, this can be used to good effect as well, particularly with the Proprietor.
There are other artistic considerations, of course. But if you trust the material in what Sondheim himself says is the only show of his in which he wouldn't change a thing, you should do fine. Trying to impose too much "concept" on top of what is already there will get you in trouble.