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The New York-based company, Wooster Group, is known for its experimental approach to theater. So it comes as somewhat of a surprise when the group chose to perform traditional songs from The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing — the religious group more commonly known as Shakers.
"Early Shaker Spirituals" is a performance based on hymns, anthems and marches by Sister R. Mildred Barker from a 1976 album. The Wooster Group interpret these pieces through song and dance.
Actress Frances McDormand and singer Suzzy Roche are members of the Wooster Group. They joined us in the studio to talk about how the genesis of the production and about the similarities between Shakers and the theater company.
Did you find any similarities between the Shakers and the Wooster group?
McDormand:
There's something really gratifying about the discipline of the Shakers' life. And it's very similar to the way that we work as musicians and actors in The Wooster Group.
Roche:
The Wooster Group connects to the Shakers through the work ethic and the attention to detail in a particular aesthetic.
Part of the aesthetic in the Shaker community is how they seem themselves as a whole. Is that the way you see yourselves in the theater group?
McDormand:
It's also a matriarchal society. Liz LeCompte — the artistic director at The Wooster Group — has been at the center of the artistic development of [the company] for almost 40 years. And Mother Ann Lee was the founding leader of the True Believers. And it's also the gender politics of the Shaker community and The Wooster Group — there's an equality to it.
Frances, you grew up in a church. What is the difference between the music you used to worship and this music?
McDormand:
Part of what I love about the process that we're in is that it takes me back to the thing that I loved most about growing up in a Christian environment — but more importantly, a communal environment — is that if you have a voice to lend, you are invited to offer it. I sang in the church choir from the age of nine and loved it. And [music is] the one thing that I can separate from the religious dogma, which I no longer believe in or practice, and can still give myself to, uncynically. What I love about the Shaker music that we're doing is that it's not religiously based. It's more poetic. There are parables to it, but it's not about Jesus so it's a little bit easier to latch on to.
Roche:
It's about work, it's about humility, it's about simplicity. A lot of the songs were received, as [the Shakers] would say, as gifts from birds and dreams. So the people who wrote these songs were just receiving them from someplace else.
Do you see this piece as a time capsule as what this community represents as it's going away?
McDormand:
It's already gone but, that being said, it feels very alive. It doesn't feel like a museum, it doesn't feel like it's gone. Maybe the conversion to a large community lifestyle is gone, but not the spirit of it. And that's what I think is effective for an audience when they come to see the piece. But also, it's about us being older, too.
Roche:
There's something so vital about the recording and the urge that these women have to sing these songs that I relate to [as I'm] getting older myself. You sort of feel [like you're] resisting that wilting feeling.
The Wooster Group performs "Early Shaker Spirituals" at REDCAT through Feb. 1.