By Katie White
Western Herald
(Chyn Wey Lee/Western Herald) Janai Travis and Frank R. Williams perform an emotional scene from "Good Death," Western Michigan University Theatre’s next performance of the fall.
Kalamazoo might feel differently about death after this weekend.
“Good Death” is the collaborative effort of Western Michigan University theatre students and the Tectonic Theatre Project, a special opportunity for WMU students that most universities never receive.
The Tectonic Theatre Project is a world-renowned theatre group based in New York, best known for their script and production of “The Laramie Project,” a play focusing on the death of Matthew Shepard, and constructed from real-life interviews.
Tectonic was contacted by WMU theatre department chair Joan Herrington, Ph.D., last school year and the ball started rolling from there.
According to Tectonic member Kelli Simpkins, the call came at the right time for the group’s availability, and she jumped on board as director. Soon after, she was at WMU, holding auditions, and gathering students’ ideas.
“We don’t like death, we put it in a corner,” said actor Darren Johnston, a WMU senior. “We try to hide it, try to escape it and this show kind of makes you face it.”
At the beginning of the show’s process, “Good Death” did not exist.
The students were given the liberty of choosing a topic for the show they would create. Many thoughts were bounced around, and in the end, the group decided on the idea of assisted suicide.
From the moment the theme was chosen, the show’s company began researching and interviewing people who would eventually become the play’s characters.
Slowly, they began to see their vision evolve from scratch, into a scripted play.
Simpkins introduced the cast of “Good Death” to Tectonic’s methodology of “moment work,” an acting style centered on bringing real-time issues to the stage.
The topic began with looking at the assisted suicides of Dr. Jack Kevorkian and how death is viewed. The 14 actors and actresses were then asked to do their research.
All summer, they interviewed people with insight on every angle of death, and researched the history of assisted suicide in America.
Students talked with terminally ill patients, families of Kevorkian’s patients, players in the Kevorkian trial, and even members of the spiritual community.
(Chyn Wey Lee/Western Herald) Ethan Haaden(standing) and Max Wardlaw acting a scene from Western Michigan University Theatre’s "Good Death."
“It’s questions that we don’t really ask in America, or in Kalamazoo, or Western culture,” Johnston said.
The production has been a constantly evolving and changing story, with the idea still fully intact. The script was fully written by the students with help from Simpkins. They were put in groups, brought what they had from all of their individual interviews and pieced together what would eventually make a cohesive story.
“When you have a script and you have a clear role, you really feel an ownership,” actress Tori Blade, a senior theatre performance major, said.
“And with this, it’s so much more collaborative. So it’s a really cool challenge to learn how to give up that ‘I want this to be my piece of theatre’ instinct.”
The “Good Death” company received a true crash-course in collaboration. From the original idea of focusing on Kevorkian and assisted suicide from an ethical standpoint, the show evolved into more of a conversation on death, dying, and life.
The final product will be unveiled Thursday, Oct. 8, at 8 p.m. at the Gilmore Theatre Complex in the Williams Theatre. There will be an opening night reception following the show.
“Good Death” runs from the Oct. 8 to 17. Thursday-Saturday shows start at 8 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 11 is a matinee at 2 p.m.
Tickets are general admission, and cost $20 for the general public, $15 for seniors and WMU faculty, and $5 for students with a valid ID.
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