Why Chaucer? Because Chaucer lights up what is so brilliantly human in each of us through his uniquely whimsical and profound theatrical
examination of the human comedy. Considered the Father of English Poetry, and an unsurpassed master of the storytelling art, Chaucer created 14th century verses
and tales that whisper to us across the centuries, like closely held secrets that make us chortle and private truths that touch our hearts.
How did it begin? Sometimes history turns on coincidence. In 1994, while seeking new material as a composer and director, I overheard a local actor reading
Chaucer's Miller’s Tale aloud to boost the spirits of an ailing mutual friend. The warmth, humor, and the bawdy exuberance of that Canterbury Tale lifted
her heart like nothing else we’d tried. It hit me that this made for terrific theatre.
This was not the Chaucer I remembered from high school. My first memories of Chaucer were of slogging through an endless two pages of The Wife of Bath’s Tale in
Middle English verse. Hearing Chaucer read aloud in modern English like this electrified me, and enticed me to read the entire Canterbury Tales. Not only would
the Miller’s make a great one-man show, I thought, perhaps the idea of a one-man show was way too narrow. Why not cast the entire tale? Why not stage them all?
Our first production took place on April 19, 1996, when Julian Lopez-Morillas performed the Nun’s Priest’s Tale on the Marin Civic Center’s Showcase Theatre
stage.
Empowered by a strong positive audience response, we proceeded to develop the epic undertaking of producing all the Canterbury
Tales, beginning the full cycle in September of 1996. In our first season, we stayed with the single “story-acting” model for the Knight, Miller, Reeve, Cook
and Lawyer’s tales.
As we developed the material with several fine actors, we began to explore new ways to make the tales come more powerfully alive and to
better reach our audiences. By 1997, we began a major theatrical shift, with the teller of the tale “casting” the other pilgrims as various characters in his
story. We began to incorporate classically-trained dancers to play the role of fairies, servants, courtiers, etc. In 2000, we shifted our soundtrack to the live,
solo cello work of the great cellist Joan Jenrenaud, formerly of the Kronos Quartet.
Then, in December of that year we began an experiment in musical theatre. The results were so exciting that we are now continuing to develop each set of tales in
this format, as Canterbury Tales Musicals.
Thanks for joining us in our journey to Canterbury.
John Geist 9/7/02
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