Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo

Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo

The lives of two U.S. Marines and an Iraqi translator are forever changed by an encounter with a quick-witted tiger who haunts the streets of Baghdad attempting to find meaning, forgiveness and redemption amidst the city’s ruins. Rajiv Joseph’s groundbreaking play explores both the power and perils of human nature.

 

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“[Bengal Tiger] mingles realism and expressionism in a highly theatrical manner. In one way, it’s existentialist and, in another, suggests a medieval morality play. One moment, it’s philosophical and, in another, absurd….”

-Roger Held
Director

Photos by Devin Miller

 

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To say “Bengal Tiger is a complex play,” is to master understatement. By turns, and sometimes simultaneously, it mingles realism and expressionism in a highly theatrical manner. In one way, it’s existentialist and, in another, suggests a medieval morality play. One moment, it’s philosophical and, in another, absurd. While depicting a devastatingly cruel and venal world it offers hope of redemption and meaningful life after a history of complacency and compliance. What we must do is not easy; we must find and risk being ourselves, standing against our Uday Hussein i.e. our powerful establishment that perpetuates violence, hate and the repression of then many for the excess of the few.

The Tiger and his ghost struggle with sin and redemption only to conclude that a tiger is not but a tiger, an animal without the capacities and responsibilities of humanity. Tommy puts his faith in the gold of worldly riches only to die alone in the desert among ghosts and Lepers, who are his only comfort. Kevin, as a ghost, seeks the voice of god without reward. Musa stops “working for bad people,” both the Husseins and Americans, by claiming the creativity of his own hands as a way of living his own life. A modern Everyman, he doesn’t know so much who he is, as all the things he is not.

Finally, “Bengal Tiger” is rooted in the tradition of anti-war plays with its condemnation of dictatorship and the violence it perpetuates and is synchronously invested well beyond that tradition in its understanding of how easily so many are sucked in to the black hole of power and fear.

-Roger Held

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Roger Held – Director
MC Friedrich – Scenic and Costume Design
George Hommowun – Lighting Design
Kent Cyr – Technical Direction
Andrew Summers and Mark Heinonen – Sound Design
Stever Klier – Musical Composition
Zach Strauss – Sound System Design
Emily Jarvi – Make-Up Design
Saif Alkuait – Arabic Coach
Patricia Helsel – Dialect Coach

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Tiger – Tobial Mahan
Kev – Scott Murphy
Tom – Noah Kosminski
Musa – Azad Heidari
Uday & Prisoner – Shahab Bayani Ahangar
Hadia & Prostitute – Annie Thelen
Woman & Leper – Becca Forsberg

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Stage Manager – Melissa Patterson
Ass’t Technical Director – Devin Miller
Ass’t Stage Manager – Anthony Nordman
Stage Crew – Jacob Oliver, Jamie Bennet, Zep Elkerton, Michael LeCaptain
QLab Operator – Matthew Hepburn
Live Mixer – Ethan Sommer
Costumer – Mary Cyr
Costume Shop Ass’t – Emily Jarvi, Courtney Schumaker, Dollcie Webb, Lexa Walker, Kitty Williams
Scene Shop Supervisor – Jeremy Littlefield
Build Crew – Jacob Black, Mary Kozmor, Jessica Wirthlin, Alex Hamilton, AJ Diehl, Aaron Christianson, James Langford, Taran Schatz, Mark Postmaa, Chris Wilson, Zep Elkerton
Master Electrician – Scott Herdegen
Electricians – Maya Ablao, Andrew Bess, Matthew Blanke, Michael Chopp, Yannick Dryden-Christensen, Michael Maple, Tyler Quinn, Drew Stockero, Alex Weber
Lighting Operator – Lauren Clark

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Sound Design by Andrew Summers and Mark Heinonen
Composition by Steven Klier

 

[On war films] The sound of war, even though I’ve never actually experienced it (and I thank the men and woman who have), was always portrayed as being incredibly gripping and dynamic. One minute you’re sitting in a fox-hole bored out of your mind and the next minute your running through the streets of Baghdad smashing down doors looking for weapons.”

-Andrew Summers
Sound Designer

This slideshow features several images from the QLab session, and a brief explanation below of what you are seeing in each.

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First, an overview of the session will all called cues listed. [fig. 1] Timed cues and individual elements were placed within cue groups to give the operator a clean session. Each cue was built in and bounced as stems from Logic Pro X. This allowed for precise alignment and spacialization to be done in a very detailed manner.

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Next is a detailed look at the pre-show psy-ops playlist, and the cue group for the Tiger’s leitmotif. [fig. 2] Psy-ops was used by the american military in the Iraq war to pump up US troops and scare Iraqi soldiers. We used it as pre-show music to set up the intensity of the show for the audience. Looking at the Tiger’s theme, you can see several of the “child cues” are delayed to time align the sound deign aspects with the composition.

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Next is an exploded look at the inner workings of the scene 3-4 transition sequence. [fig. 3] Below the cues is a look at the send levels for each speaker. There were 26 total channels used for the show, including a reverb system and several delay channels passing signal through Logic X.

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Finally is a look at how the pre-show music, ending with Slipknot’s Psychosocial, builds to the end of pre-show and drops out for the opening scene. [fig. 4] The automation begins to increase the volume in the second half of the song and builds to a level of about 100dB for the final minute of the song.

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“Spacializing this design was an experience in itself. Our systems designer, Zach Strauss, met and designed with us an incredible 16 speaker 26 output sound system that allowed Andrew, Steve, and myself to build an intricate soundscape spread throughout the black-box theater. With so many options available, we could use sound to immerse the audience in the scene, or put one of those little ghostly voices in their heads.”

-Mark Heinonen
Sound Designer

Here are several example cues from the production. Several of which were used in the realized sound design presentation at KCACTF Region III. (Mixed for “ye olde stereo” by Andrew Summers)

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Lighting Design by George Hommowun

 

Light Plot | Cue Sheet

 

Throughout the show there were two realities being depicted. The first was the harsh reality of Baghdad at the time. The second, accented by changes in lighting, was that of the visions of several characters. You can see in two of the images above two very different looks occurring at the same time and place within seconds of each other. One realistic, and one depicting things as Musa saw them in his vision.

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Scenic Design by MC Friedrich

 

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Costume Design by MC Friedrich

 

To maintain accuracy of the Military uniforms, costume designer MC Friedrich brought in Michigan Tech ROTC member Eric Doering. Eric assisted with helping the actors maintain proper dress code, equipment usage, and manner with which Murphy and Kosminski carried themselves as soldiers.

 

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Director Roger Held works with Scott Murphy to sort through military gear. Murphy [Kev] was involved in a scene where he removes several pieces of gear rather quickly. This required careful blocking and understanding of how the equipment worked. [Photo by Mark Heinonen]
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Make-Up Design by Emily Jarvi

 

Early in the show, Tommy looses a hand to Tiger’s maw. This required the illusion of a prosthetic hand. A rubber glove coated in flesh toned paint and a stiffening agent provided the look, while the actor, Kosminski provided the stability needed to maintain the look throughout the show.

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