By Michelle Hines, University Relations
Contact: (336) 334-5371
Posted 9-8-09
GREENSBORO, N.C. – He teaches. He directs. And he writes.
Jim Fisher, head of the Department of Theatre, is also a published playwright. Two of his comedies – “The Braggart Soldier” and “The Bogus Bride” – have just been published as part of the Inveresk Play Series.
Inveresk markets the series to drama departments and theatre groups.
Fisher adapted “Soldier” from the Roman comedy “Miles Gloriosus.” His students at Wabash College in Indiana performed the play in 2006, Fisher’s last production at Wabash before coming to UNCG.
Roman comedies are more loosely constructed than their Greek counterparts, Fisher says, much more like Saturday Night Live skits.
“They are basically elongated sketches that revolve around one or two very distinct characters,” he says. “In this case, the braggart soldier is a prototype for the bragging coward. The brutality and stupidity of this soldier is mocked and he takes a lot of abuse in the course of the play.”
Roman comedies generally have thin, somewhat sketchy plots, and are heavily dependent on actor improvisation, Fisher says. “It’s sort of like the screenplay for a Jim Carrey film, where it just says, ‘Jim does his thing.’ In a comedy you want to capitalize on what the actor comes in with. How they sound, look, think, their way of putting things when they speak.”
Of course, Fisher could not resist making use of the current political atmosphere. “I wrote a lot of Bushisms into the soldier character,” he says. “It’s sort of making light of Bush’s macho approach.”
“Bride” is an original play written in the commedia dell’arte tradition. Written in 1982, it has been published twice before and has been produced Off Broadway and in colleges and high schools.
The plot centers on a “dirty old man character” who has raised a girl as his ward and expects to marry her, Fisher says. She is in love with his son, and the servants have to plot to allow marriage of the girl to the son.
“I’m still in shock that it has been produced so much,” he says. “I assume it is popular because it allows for interpretation and improv – most plays don’t these days. Directors are always on the lookout for a script like that, one that lets the actors become fully invested.”
Fisher saw one college production that took innovation to the next level: Students performed it in the school’s empty swimming pool.
