BEN SCHEFF - SOUND DESIGN AND COMPOSITION
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Woyzeck

AT THE CLAIRE TREVOR THEATER, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE, 2016

WRITTEN BY GEORG BÜCHNER
TRANSLATED BY HENRY J. SCHMIDT
DIRECTED BY ANDREW BORBA
​SET BY DAVID PHILLIPS
COSTUMES BY SERA BOURGEAU
LIGHTING BY DARRIN WADE
SOUND DESIGN, COMPOSITION, AND LYRICS BY BEN SCHEFF
ASSISTED BY JORDAN TANI

Drums - Mark Caspary
Cello - Jordan Tani
Additional Guitars - Thomas Varga
All Other Instruments - Ben Scheff
Woyzeck is, to say the least, a fractured and incomplete work. Many translators and playwrights have set out to stitch it together, but often it winds up in the purview of a given production how to put it back together. Often this is done in an expressly narrative fashion. Our approach was...a little stranger.

We decided early on that exploring the subtext and political implications of the show would be far more compelling. Set in some anachronistic occupied territory, we allowed each of the varying government and societal entities that fail Woyzeck to take on the physical forms that matched their characters. These manifested as animal iconography, which grew as Woyzeck lost touch with reality until the people around him actually became animals.

We also wanted to incorporate song into the show, but avoid musical theater trope as much as we could. I wrote lyrics for several songs that we put together, replacing those in the translation we were using. A lonely cello represented Woyzeck's intense isolation, contrasting with loud punk rock as the release he couldn't get in the world around him.
All photos copyright Paul R. Kennedy
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 © 2020
  • Theater
    • Kennedy: Bobby's Last Crusade
    • Red Roses, Green Gold
    • Only Human
    • I Dream of Cheng and Eng
    • The Iliad: Menin (Rage)
    • No Room for Wishing
    • 1:23
    • More...
  • Circus
    • 'Twas the Night Before...
    • Circus Smirkus: Carnival
    • Manxome Foes
  • Dance
    • Near/Miss
  • Other Projects
    • Drafting
    • Other Compositions
    • Sound Objects
  • About