SPOTLIGHT: 'Marat/Sade' directors' vision worlds apart

"What's the point of a revolution without general copulation?" chanted the cast of Marat/Sade as they practiced various sex positions in pairs during rehearsal last Wednesday night. Seth Rozin and Chris Hariasz, the play's two directors, looked on, continuously discussing the performances of the actors. Hariasz has been helping the actors with many of the physical aspects of performance, while Rozin has been concentrating on the emotional development of the characters. "Make sure it's copulation," Hariasz told the cast. "You guys don't know how to use your genitals." The production of Marat/Sade is unusual because it has two professional directors. This a rare situation which does not always work out. But although the directors disagree on some aspects of the performance, they and their cast all agree that Rozin and Hariasz work extremely well together. "I'm surprised that there are so few clashes," Hariasz said. Hariasz and Rozin meet a few times a week before rehearsals to discuss their ideas about the play. During rehearsals, they are constantly discussing the play in hushed voices and having what cast member and College senior Jef Morrison calls "mini-conferences," with each other. "What I enjoy about co-directing . . . [is that] we start developing ideas and we both add something," Hariasz said. Rozin said that it is good for the actors to receive two different points of view and to sometimes be confused. This way they "don't get locked into a rut." Rozin also pointed out that aside from the directors, the actors are also instrumental in developing the portrayal of the play. "Most of the creative work gets done in rehearsals. At this point, our role is more as facilitators," Rozin said. "We may have to give them [the cast] credit for directing." Cast members said that they find it an advantage to get two different points of view. "They work out the absolute best way to do things," Stage Manager and College senior Sara Rutstein said. The styles, backgrounds and personalities of Marat/Sade's two directors are literally worlds apart. Rozin brings to Marat/Sade his interest in developing the emotional aspects of the characters while Hariasz focuses more on their physical actions and the revolutionary and historical aspects of the play. Rozin graduated from the University in 1986. He worked as an artist for a year, and then he was hired as assistant director of performing arts at the University. In 1988, he founded InterAct Theater Company. Rozin said he has fun during rehearsals. "I like working here with students," Rozin said. "The people are doing it because they really want to. The group chemistry is unlike working professionally." Rozin was described as "people-oriented" and "really relaxed" respectively by cast members Chris Roberts, a College junior, and Morrison. In 1983, Hariasz emigrated to the United States from Poland, where he had been a director and actor. He left Poland primarily for political reasons. Hariasz began working for the Theatre Arts Program at the University in 1987 and is currently Production Manager for the Theatre Arts Program. Hariasz is someone who gets directly to the point. Roberts spoke of Hariasz as "heady, a deep thinker." Morrison said that he possesses strong opinions and "states things in a matter-of-fact way." In Poland, Hariasz was trained in non-realistic and non-conventional forms of theater, a background which is more common in Europe and highly dissimilar from traditional American theater training. The philosophy of this European style of acting has shaped his interest in the physical aspects of character and acting. Hariasz elucidated some of the differences between American and European theater training and philosophies. He said that in the United States actors start from the inside of a character. However, Hariasz explained, European theater traditionally tries to work from the outside actions in. "In order to show emotions, you don't actually have to feel them. They are external manifestations," Hariasz explained. Rozin is more interested in the emotional basis of characters. "My general interest is in what's going on underneath the facade of contentment," Rozin said. Rozin and Hariasz approach theater in different ways, but they emphasized that their approaches can lead to a similar result.

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