Characters and Casting

Upon reading Georg Buchner's Woyzeck, some thoughts in accordance to the casting of the characters in this play. The following statement is a textual analysis of my thoughts concerning certain characters, and Traditional or Non-Traditional casting as a whole. 

Traditional and Non-Traditional casting is one of the obstacles the production team of any work must delegate in a world with Equity and Non-Equity actors. However, I find that whoever wishes to tackle casting for the play Woyzeck would have a wonderful time doing so. This is because he characters themselves are so diverse, not only in their personalities, but also in their race, age, sex, creed, mental, and physical capabilities. The Child, for example, could be played by practically anyone if done with Non-Traditional casting, as it is a non-speaking role and is only required to scream and push his father away at the end of the play. This role can be filled by an actual child or a skilled actor portraying a child. There is no indication that a particular race or sex is required and could even be handicapped as long as he can do the two things mentioned before. Casting in this manner will open a wide array of possibilities for character development and visual interest.

Casting Georg Buchner’s Woyzeck Non-Traditionally will add to the beauty of the work but, there are certain characters that require certain individuals. Woyzeck is definately a character that cannot be played by just anyone. There are particular scenes that require him to walk, dance around and even murder his wife, Marie (p.20). The actor playing this role must be physically capable of performing the action required in the text. Meanwhile, Woyzeck is also undergoing some serious mental issues as a result of a medical experiment where he is required to eat only peas. As his mind deteriorates, Woyzeck believes that the world is heading towards a the Apocolypse and tells Marie "...there was something out there again - a lot. Isn't it written: 'And lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace'?...It followed me until I reached town. What's going to happen? (p.13)" An actor must be mentally capable of handling this role or else it wouldn't work or could even be dangerous to the actor. 
Eventhough, some of the roles in Woyzeck, like the apprentices', children and students lack a specific sex in their character descriptions, there are certain ones who MUST be their perspective male/female roles. Not only is it against copyright law to cast characters opposite to their gender specific roles, the 1800's is an unforgiving time period in which you do not publicly have homosexual relationships, therefore, Woyzeck and Marie could not be the same sex (especially since Woyzeck fathered a child) nor could the Drum-Major and Marie. On that note, if this production was to be an accurate historical depiction of the time and place in which Woyzeck is set, the play will have 15 men, 4 women, 1 child plus “others” (soldiers, sundry men and women, students, children, court officials, judge). This is because certain occupations such as a doctor or soldier were not held by a woman in the 1800's. 
In retrospect of this statement and my previous findings, it is safe to conclude that this production of Georg Buchner's Woyzeck could not be a true Non-Traditional cast. There are textual demands in the script for certain characters that must be performed by a capable person; otherwise, the play won't work. 

Characters

Woyzeck - Listed by Buchner in the list of characters as "a military barber," Woyzeck is the play's title character and protagonist. He is of low economic status and has a nearly two-year-old illegitimate child by Marie, his common-law wife. He lives in the military barracks with his friend and confidant, Andres, and shaves his Officer daily. He is also the subject of the Doctor's experiment, subsisting on a diet of only peas so that the effects on his body and mind may be studied. Woyzeck loves Marie and his child, but Marie's infidelity is the catalyst for his descent into madness and murder. He is an archetype of human suffering.

Marie - Woyzeck's common-law wife, with whom he has a nearly two-year-old illegitimate child. She is fond of Woyzeck, but cannot resist the stalwart and important Drum-Major, who seduces her and with whom she has an affair. Marie is usually pictured holding her child, except when she is committing adultery with the Drum-Major. Woyzeck stabs Marie to death as retribution for her infidelity.

Andres - A fellow soldier, friend and confidant to Woyzeck. Andres witnesses Woyzeck's maniacal outbursts and knows that he hears voices, but becomes numb to these facts and recommends that Woyzeck seek medical help. He is a foil for Woyzeck, being of the same economic status and rank in the military, but mentally sound.

Child - The illegitimate child of Marie and Woyzeck, who is nearly two years old. He does not speak, and is usually pictured on Marie's lap or in the care of Karl, the Idiot. At the play's end, he refuses to let his father touch him, screaming and pushing him away.

Margreth - Marie's neighbor, with whom she admires the Drum-Major as his battalion passes by their building. Marie gets angry at Margreth and calls her "Bitch" when the latter suggests that she, a taken woman, is flirting with the Drum-Major.

Drum-Major - The stalwart and cocky leader of the military drum corps. He is of the middle class and ranks above Woyzeck. When he sees Marie he is instantly attracted to her with an animalistic passion. Not only does he find her ravishingly attractive, but sees her appeal as a sturdy, lower-class woman to breed him thousands of little drum-majors. The Drum-Major and Marie have an affair. He beats up Woyzeck when the latter acts insubordinately towards him at the inn.

Sergeant - A military officer and friend of the Drum-Major's who is with the latter when he first spots Marie at the fair and helps him snare her. The Sergeant lends his watch to the Showman to get Marie's attention and then helps her into the front row to see the show better.

Old Man - A poor, old man who sings outside the fair. His presence introduces the hopelessness of lower-class existence and his ditty introduces the nonchalant pessimism that permeates the novel.

Showman - The emcee at the fair booth, who conducts a show with a dancing monkey and "astronomical horse" that can supposedly tell time. His upbeat, playful and showy banter is uncharacteristic of the play's melancholic and pessimistic tone. Yet the content of his speech makes Buchner's main point about man's instinctive vitality, which society suppresses wrongfully and disastrously.

Officer - The military official to whom Woyzeck reports, and whom he shaves daily. Woyzeck calls him "my Captain." He is anxious and lethargic, and is almost always shown seated and saying very little in many words. The Officer gives Woyzeck bonuses, which the latter delivers to Marie. However the Officer also makes a habit of mocking Woyzeck pretentiously, saying that he lacks morals and virtue. The Officer represents the middle class, who are lazy and pompous in their security.

Doctor - A physician and university researcher, who is using Woyzeck as the guinea pig for his unethical experiment. He makes Woyzeck subsist on a diet of only peas in order to track its effects on his physical and mental state. Although Woyzeck makes his hallucinations and torment clear to the Doctor, the latter does nothing to help him, rather being fascinated by his symptoms and pointing them out to his students as though Woyzeck is a lab animal.

Professor - A professor collaborating with the Doctor.

1st and 2nd Journeyman - Two workers who are dancing and drinking at the inn when Woyzeck spies Marie with the Drum-Major. They partake freely in the merriment that Woyzeck cannot, although their banter is pessimistic.

Idiot - Also known as Karl. He helps Marie take care of her child, and can often be found mumbling to himself aimlessly. At the end of the play, he runs off with the child at Woyzeck's request, presumably to become the child's new caregiver.

Jew - The owner of the shop Woyzeck visits. He sells Woyzeck the knife with which he fatally stabs Marie for two groschen. As he completes the transaction, he assumes that Woyzeck is buying the knife to commit suicide, and jokes that it will be an "economical death" since the knife is so cheap.

Grandmother - Either Marie's mother and her child's grandmother, or an old woman of the neighborhood. She tells Marie and the children a 'black fairy tale' or 'anti-fairy tale' about a poor orphan who is sad and lonely for all eternity with absolutely no hope for bettering his situation. Although she appears only once and briefly, her story encapsulates Buchner's tragic, fatalistic point of view about man's existence and the fate of the lower class.

Innkeeper - Owner of the inn where Woyzeck and others go to drink and dance. He does not believe Woyzeck's excuse that the blood on his hand is his own, and presses him about it until he flees.

Kathe - A woman who is dancing at the inn when Woyzeck arrives after murdering Marie. She ignores his deranged verbal jabs until she spots the blood on his hands and causes a scene.

Policeman - The last speaker in the play, who describes the murder as "lovely" to those present in the last scene.

Others - Minor characters who appear at different points in the play. Described by Buchner as: "soldiers, sundry men and women, students, children, court officials, judge."
http://www.gradesaver.com/woyzeck/study-guide/character-list/

Fable with Plot Summary

FABLE - In the beginning of the play, Woyzeck and Andre are out on a field at night and spook eachother about tales of the Freemasons meeting there.

The next scene shows Marie with her child and singing her child to sleep.

Woyzeck then visits the Doctor for a checkup of an experiment involving Woyzeck eating only peas for a given length of time.

Then the Drum Major and Sergeant are introduced to the play where the drum major later seduces Martha at a carnival of sorts while with Woyzeck. Martha and the Drum Major begin a fiery affair in which she feels extremely resentful.

In the next scene, Woyzeck begins to suspect something is amiss whereas the Doctor tells him and the students observing him that his fever and pea diet that is causing these appartations.

Marie is then seen admiring and loathing a ruby necklace given to her by her lover. Woyzeck walks in the room where Martha quickly covers her ears and says that the shiny object showing through her fingers is an earring and she is looking for its mate. Satisfied, Woyzeck leaves the room with Martha damning herself for her sin.

Woyzeck is later reassured by someone that he should be worried about his wife’s doings and again put into a tizzy where he goes to a Jew to buy a gun. However the gun is too expensive and opts for a knife instead.

He is next seen in a room with his wife where he confronts her, stabs her multiple times, and fleas the scene.

At a public place, Woyzeck’s friends notice his bloody hand where he says he had cut himself. They also notice the blood goes all the way up to his elbow in which he answers that he wiped his hand on his sleeve. A friend remarks that he is very talented for wiping his right hand on the same elbow. Woyzeck restrains himself before he has an outburst and leaves the scene.

We then see him looking for his knife where he had slain Marie.

He finds it and throws it into the lake.

      He returns to find his child had fallen into the water and drowned. The play ends with Woyzeck sitting      alone in his grief.
      PLOT SUMMARY - Woyzeck is the tragic tale of a military barber named Woyzeck, who stabs to death his beloved common-law wife, Marie, for her infidelity. We first encounter Woyzeck with his friend, Andres, in an open field outside the town. Woyzeck is having violent, apocalyptic visions and thinks that he hears voices, while Andres sees and hears nothing unusual. Next, we meet Marie. She is sitting with her child by the window, watching the military marching band go by and admiring the Drum-Major. Woyzeck arrives to give Marie money and tells her about his latest hallucinations. The next day, Woyzeck and Marie visit a fair where they are drawn into a Showman's booth. The Drum-Major spies Marie and is attracted to her instantly. He and the Sergeant follow Marie and Woyzeck into the booth, where the Showman conducts a spectacle with a dancing monkey and an "astronomical horse," all the while making jokes at mankind's expense. The Sergeant helps Marie into the front row for a better view. Some days later, Marie sits with her child on her lap, admiring a pair of gold earrings that the Drum-Major gave her. When Woyzeck arrives, she lies and says that she found them. After he leaves, she scolds herself for being a "no-good tart," but then decides that she is no more immoral than anyone else. Our focus switches to Woyzeck, who is shaving the Officer. The latter mocks him egotistically, telling him he has no morals or virtue. Woyzeck defends himself by saying that he would be moral and virtuous if he were not so poor. Meanwhile, Marie and the Drum-Major meet in secret. The sexual tension between them is explosive and it is implied that they gratify their sexual urges. At the Doctor's office, the Doctor scolds Woyzeck for urinating in the street, since he could have used the urine for experimental tests. He is studying the effects of a peas-only diet on Woyzeck's physical and mental health. The Doctor is delighted by Woyzeck's descriptions of his increasingly tormented hallucinations, and gives him a monetary bonus. Presumably some days later, we find the Officer visiting the Doctor. The two men exchange playful jabs before Woyzeck arrives. The Officer tells Woyzeck of Marie and the Drum-Major's affair. Woyzeck confronts Marie, who becomes defensive and dodges his accusations. In the next scene, we find the Doctor presenting Woyzeck to his students as an experimental subject. He refers to Woyzeck in the manner one might refer to a lab rat or guinea pig. Back in the guardroom, Woyzeck begins to feel very hot and tries to share his increasing mental torment with Andres, who calls him a "bloody fool." When Woyzeck joins the other soldiers at the inn, he sees Marie and the Drum-Major dancing and becomes enraged. We next find him alone in an open field. He hears voices mimicking the rhythm of the dance that tell him to stab Marie to death. That night, the voices keep Woyzeck awake. The next day in the barrack square, Andres recounts the Drum-Major's chauvinistic comments about Marie, and Woyzeck hurries off to the inn. There, he whistles insubordinately at the Drum-Major, who beats him up and leaves him bleeding. In the next scene, he buys a knife from a Jew, who jokes that he is buying himself an "economical death." Our attention then turns to Marie at home, flipping frantically through the Bible. Her guilt has caught up with her, and she wishes to be absolved of her sin like the adultress who was brought before Christ. Woyzeck has not been by to see her in two days. While Marie flips through the Bible, Woyzeck is at the barracks, rifling through his belongings. He reads from an official military document that states his birthday as the date of the Feast of the Annunciation. In the next scene, Marie sits with Grandmother and a group of girls on the steps to her house. When they run out of songs, the Grandmother tells a 'black fairy tale' about an orphan boy who found life empty and was miserable and lonely for all eternity. Just as she finishes her story, Woyzeck arrives and leads Marie outside the town. When she tries to get away, he accuses and insults her, and then stabs her repeatedly before the sounds of townspeople approaching scare him away. Woyzeck goes to the inn, where he jeers at a dancing woman named Kathe. She ignores him until she notices the blood on his hands and causes a scene. Woyzeck's excuses as to how the blood got on his hands do not add up, and he is forced to flee to the crime scene in search of the knife. When he stumbles upon Marie's body, he coos to her, proud that he has absolved her of her "black" deed and made her "white" and pure again. He throws the knife in a pond and then, deciding it is not deep enough, wades in after it to throw it deeper. After he washes the blood off his hands, Woyzeck returns to Marie's house to find his child in the care of the Idiot, Karl. When he tries to embrace his child, the latter screams and pushes him away. Woyzeck sends the Idiot and child away. In the play's last scene, a Policeman addresses various townspeople including the Doctor and a Judge. He says simply: "A good murder, a proper murder, a lovely murder, as lovely a murder as anyone could wish, we've not had a murder like this for years."
http://www.gradesaver.com/woyzeck/study-guide/short-summary/

Exegesis

Freemasons (p.12) –

noun

a member of a widely distributed secret order (Free and Accepted Masons), having for its object mutual assistance and the promotion of brotherly love among its members.

( lowercase ) History/Historical .

one of a class of skilled stoneworkers of the Middle Ages, possessing secret signs and passwords.

a member of a society composed of such workers, which also included honorary members (accepted masons) not connected with the building trades.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Freemasons 

“And lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace” (p.13) – Gen 19:28, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

http://bible.cc/genesis/19-28.htm

Barrel organ (p.13) – (Music / Instruments) an instrument consisting of a cylinder turned by a handle and having pins on it that interrupt the air flow to certain pipes, thereby playing any of a number of tunes

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/barrel+organ          

Raison (p.14) – reason

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/raison

Société (p.14) – society/company

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/soci%C3%A9t%C3%A9

Musculus constrictor vesicae (p.15)

Musculus means muscle

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/musculus

constrictor means one that constricts, especially a muscle that contracts or compresses a part or organ of the body… a muscle that binds or restricts an opening, such as the ciliary body fibers that control the size of the pupil.

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/constrictor

Vesicae is the bladder, especially the urinary bladder or the gallbladder

http://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/vesica

Urea (p.15)- A water-soluble compound, CO(N_H2)2, that is the major nitrogenous end product of protein metabolism and is the chief nitrogenous component of the urine in mammals and other organisms. Also called carbamide.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/urea

Aberratio (p.16) - aberration

deviation from the normal or the usual

imperfect refraction or focalization of a lens.

Apoplexia cerebralis (p.16)- Cerebral apoplexy - Latin description of the disease. Meaning: stroke

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://wiki-de.genealogy.net/Apoplexia_cerebralis&ei=pJ_vTYGaN8ajtgeOmuieCQ&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CBoQ7gEwAA&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dapoplexia%2Bcerebralis%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1583%26bih%3D718%26prmd%3Divnsb

Pliny (p.16) - Gaius Plinius Secundus (23 AD – August 25, 79 AD), better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian. Spending most of his spare time studying, writing or investigating natural and geographic phenomena in the field, he wrote an encyclopedic work, Naturalis Historia, which became a model for all such works written subsequently.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pliny_the_Elder

Basic Facts

WOYZECK

            Author - Georg Büchner

Translated/edited by Henry J. Schmidt c1969

Play Structure - 27 scenes

Cast Breakdown – 15 men, 4 women, 1 child plus “others” (soldiers, sundry men and women, students, children, court officials, judge)

70 minutes approx running time

                              http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/TRIC/bin/get.cgi?directory=vol10_1/&filename=Rockett.htm

Genre - Translation

Brief Bio of Playwright - Georg Büchner (1813-37) lived the life of three people during his brief lifetime. He studied to be a medical researcher and was a student revolutionary, and of course, a playwright. He wrote three plays, Danton's Death (1835), Leonce and Lena (1836), and Woyzeck (unfinished at the time of his death). Danton's Death and Leonce and Lena focus on characters and characteristics of the French Revolution while Woyzeck concerns working class citizens and poverty. Büchner was born on October 17, 1813 in Goddelau, a small town in Germany. He came from a family of doctors and himself studied medicine in Strasbourg, where he also began to study politics and French. Büchner returned to Germany in 1834 to continue his studies at the University of Giessen in Hesse. Living in Germany during the aftermath of the French Revolution, he was involved in an underground society which was against the Grand Duke of Hesse, Ludwig II. One of his activities with the society

      was to pen "The Hessian Courier," a political tract that encouraged peasants to revolt. In 1835, while home in Germany, Büchner wrote his first play, Danton's Death, about the early leader of the French revolution, Georges Danton, whose own Revolutionary Tribunal was used against him by Robespierre. With a warrant out for his arrest, Büchner left Germany in 1835 due to his revolutionary activities and pamphlet writing and returned to Strasbourg to finish his studies. He received a doctorate in 1836, writing a treatise on the nervous system of a fish as his dissertation. While studying in Strasbourg, Buchner translated two plays by Victor Hugo: Lucretia Borgia and Mary Tudor. After completing his studies in Strasbourg, Büchner went to Zurich in 1836, where he was offered a post as a lecturer in natural history. In 1837, he contracted typhoid fever and after a seventeen-day struggle with the illness, died. He was 24 years old.

                                   i.      http://www.suite101.com/content/georg-buechner-and-woyzeck-a132608

Publication info, licensing and rights – Product Details

                                 Paperback: 141 pages

                                 Publisher: BARD BOOKS, Avon Books; 1st edition (1969)

                                 Language: English

                                ASIN: B001EOFYAW

                          http://www.amazon.com/Georg-Buchner-translation-supplementary-material/dp/B001EOFYAW/ref=cm_cmu_pg__header

Definitions of Dramaturgy

dramaturgy
dram·a·tur·gy
–noun

the art of writing and producing plays.

http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/webwn?s=dramaturgy

the art or technique of dramatic composition and theatrical representation

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dramaturgy

the art of dramatic composition and the representation of the main elements of drama on the stage. Dramaturgy is a distinct practice separate from play writing and directing, although a single individual may perform any combination of the three.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dramaturgy

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
(22 January 1729 – 15 February 1781) was a German writer, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic, and one of the most outstanding representatives of the Enlightenment era. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature. He is widely considered by theatre historians to be the first dramaturg.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotthold_Ephraim_Lessing