Art is imitating life in the Company’s production of “Quills” this weekend. After six months of arguments with the University over the play’s inclusion of nudity, the newest student theater organization on campus will produce the controversial 18th century play under the direction of senior Paul Rozenberg and sophomore Alex Eisner.
“If any line from the play summed up our experience, I’d say it was when the Marquis says, ‘In conditions of adversity, the artist thrives,’ ” said Eisner.
The group, whose mission is “to produce edgy and experimental theater,” had originally planned to produce the controversial story of French aristocrat Marquis de Sade in February. University officials decided to halt the production after finding out that it contained full-frontal nudity and focused on themes like sex, pornography and censorship.
“When the University first revoked our privileges, we thought that the entire point of the show was defeated in one fell swoop,” said sophomore Mark Amoroso, who plays the Abbe de Coulmier.
After a series of meetings with the Student Activities Center in which Rozenberg fought to secure the right to produce the play, Quills was given the green light to open later in the year.
The award-winning story depicts the last days of Marquis de Sade, a French aristocrat and pornographic novelist. In one scene, the character appears naked after asylum wards strip off his clothes in an effort to censor his controversial writings.
Michael Weiss, the actor who will bear it all as de Sade in the production, says he is passionate about the message behind the scenes that contain nudity.
“It’s written in the script for a specific reason; it’s very tasteful and it adds a layer that needs to be there,” said Weiss.
Eisner related his experience to the plot of the play itself, in which de Sade is censored by the government for the content of his writing.
“Although we’re not saying it openly, we did face issues of censorship with the University and we overcame that as a cast,” Eisner said.
Weiss, who is also the president of the organization, said that the controversy surrounding the production is befitting for a group that strives to do something different and challenging in the student theater community.
“The reason we created the Company was to create a new venue for theater, to go beyond shows that have been recycled and redone, to do shows that have either a political agenda or challenge the audience in a new way,” said Weiss.
Rozenberg is anxious to see the reaction audiences have to the themes presented in “Quills” when it opens Friday in the Mitchell Hall Theater.
“I want people to be open,” said Rozenberg. “The whole reasoning for this show was to show GW that it’s okay to read things like de Sade, that pornography isn’t all bad and (that) censorship hinders total artistic creativity.”
The Company will perform “Quills” Friday, May 1 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, May 2 at 7 and 10 p.m. in the Mitchell Hall Theater.
