David Gerson, CC '08, and Abby Broberg, CC '08, are determined to bring "non-masturbatory theater" to Columbia with their U.S. premiere of Mick Gordon and A.C. Grayling's On Religion this weekend.
"With masturbatory theater, you do it and there's nothing created by it," Gerson explains. "It's like St. Augustine, when he talks about how going to the theater is pointless, because it didn't serve any greater purpose."
On Religion is a thought-provoking theater essay that explores the relationship between science and religion through the story of an atheist mother and her Christian minister son. The mother uses science to have a religious experience. She wears a special God helmet to see holy apparitions of her son who died on Sept. 11, 2001. The whole play unfolds as a depiction of what she sees with the helmet on.
Gerson and Broberg's production has a point: to create a safe space for controversial dialogue about these issues in the form of the play, and to create a provocative panel discussion afterwards.
He has spent eight weeks directing the play, but has been working on the production since December. He first saw the show in November at the Soho Theatre in London while he was studying abroad at the British American Drama Academy. For the first time, Gerson felt he had seen theater that had made him think.
"This was something I felt, as cliche as it sounds, that could cause someone to think in a different way because of what they saw in the theater, or at the very least use theater as a screen board for discussion," he said.
An aspiring director, Gerson was looking for a play with a purpose to direct at Columbia and thought On Religion was "the shit." That same night he saw the show, he was already thinking he needed to get the rights to the play. After the performance, Gerson stayed late in the theater to wait for his friend who worked as an usher.
While he was waiting, in walked playwright Mick Gordon to give the tech people notes for that night of production (the show was still in previews). Gerson wasted no time-he approached Gordon and explained his goal of bringing Gordon's play to the academic realm with the aim of sparking discussion in a university setting.
He left with the rights of an amateur U.S. premiere of On Religion.
He recruited Broberg as his producer because she "knew the ropes of the bureaucracy" of putting on a theater show at Columbia. She founded King's Crown Shakespeare Troupe's Egg & Peacock show, a 24-hour play production. She also produced the recent off-Broadway Macbeth.
The rest of the production cycle was not as easy.
Because of time constraints and conflicting goals, no theater group agreed to sponsor this production. The scramble to find a theater space on campus was also disappointing, as Roone Arledge, Miller Theatre, and Low Library were booked months in advance.
Reaching out to non-theater groups for support, Broberg and Gerson eventually raised over $5,000 and received 18 sponsorships, with groups as varied as the Bhakti Club, the Columbia Forum for Society, Science, and Religion, and the Augustine Club, which was their first sponsor.
"The reason I wanted to do it at Columbia was to have all the student groups somehow involved," Gerson said.
Other sponsors include Hillel, the Kraft Fund, the Muslim Students Association, and CUArts.
"It's a revolution," says Gerson of their fundraising effort and varied sponsors. "It shows you don't have to go the normal route of doing things here."
"If you're willing to bleed and cry," Abby added.
"And if you're willing to put up with all the bureaucratic bullshit that Columbia has to offer. Every day was a new problem for putting on this show," Gerson admitted.
But at the same time, certain organizations were very supportive-including Casa Italiana where the show is going to be held this weekend.
Gerson's cast turned out to be very diverse, in that besides a Columbia student (John Beck, CC '07), there's a Barnard alumnus (Ana Cruz Kayne, BC '06), a 48-year-old GS student (Marguerite Van Cook), and a middle-aged professional actor (Tim Hayes).
But the show offers more than just a performance. Another main goal in putting on the play at Columbia was to spark a mix of dialogue on campus.
"The way they wrote this play was based on interviews with religious and anti-religious experts. We're doing the reverse of that-we're taking the play, then finding the experts at Columbia to have them speak about the play," Gerson explained.
A panel discussion will follow each evening performance. On Friday night, neuroscience professor Joy Hirsch and Imam Syed Zafaruddin Sayeed will speak. On Saturday night, atheist astronomy professor David Helfand and Pandit Gadadhara Pandit Dasa will square off. A gospel band and refreshments will follow the panel discussions.
Gerson saw the play with two of his friends in London, and he remembers discussing the issues of the play with them afterward in a bar. "I thought it'd be great to get people to speak after the show. The gospel band reception after the panel, where everyone can hang out in the bottom floor of Casa Italiana, could really be the springboard of discussion," he said.
This also explains his decision to present On Religion as theater in the round.
"You're looking at people across from you as they are looking at actors on the stage. This very enclosed space gives space to talk to people," he said.
"The idea of a safe space for me means that you can take more risks and not that you can limit yourself," Broberg added.
Gerson hopes people who don't normally attend campus productions will show up for the thought-provoking play. He believes strongly in the potential of this play to make a difference in the campus arts community: "If theater can cause discussion, that's the only way it can effect change."