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In January, WETA filmed Nathan the Wise, which will be aired on WETA-TV
Channel 26 on April 6 and 7.
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Nathan the Wise Set to Be Aired on Local Public Television
By Fran Rensbarger
In mid-January, a semitrailer television truck stuffed with 20 monitors, producers
and directors, and controlled chaos parked outside the Center for the Arts. Inside
the center, the bedlam included six camera operators, cables criss-crossed everywhere,
a full TV production office in the costume shop, more than 70 people going about
a ballet of coordinated tasks, and TV people and theater people sharing ideas
on how to transform Robinson Professor Paul D'Andrea's adaptation of Nathan
the Wise from the hot medium of theater to the cool medium of TV.
Thus, began the conversion of a play about a Muslim, a Christian, a Jew, the
Crusades, and religious tolerance into a WETA television production. The play,
written by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing in 18th-century Germany during the German
Enlightenment, takes place in the Third Crusade in a.d. 1192 in Jerusalem. The
context is the conflict, similar to the present conflict, among Christians, Jews,
and Muslims over the holy land claimed by all three religious groups.
During 1995 and 1996, Gisela and Paul D'Andrea translated Lessing's play.
Working with the Theater of the First Amendment (TFA) from 1996 to 2001, Professor
D'Andrea adapted it to the American stage. TFA's presentation of the play happened
to coincide with the last fall's catastrophic events.
"Because of the play's timeliness and the powerful effect it had on audiences - many
people used words such as ėrescue' and ėhealing' to describe their emotions upon
seeing the play - members of the general public approached us repeatedly to suggest
a PBS/ WETA production so that the show could reach a broader audience," says
Rick Davis, associate dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts and artistic
director of TFA. "Sally Merten [wife of President Alan Merten] was instrumental
in first floating the idea at WETA." Her effort led to several of the station's
producers and directors coming out to see the show, and they agreed that it would
make a good public television program.
Audience members offered to help fund the play's transformation from a stage
to a TV production. D'Andrea tells of a couple from California who came out of
the audience and volunteered a sizable and enabling amount of money, saying, "This
has got to be on public TV."
Christian churches, Jewish community centers, and Islamic institutions have
set up interfaith initiatives based on attending or reading Nathan the Wise.
Ambassador Nabil Fahmy and Minister Abderahman of the Egyptian embassy were impressed
by the play's positive portrayal of the Islamic ruler Saladin and historically
accurate portrayal of Islam. "They, like our whole audience, were moved by the
play's vision of peaceful cooperation among the three Abrahamic religions," says
Davis.
Currently, the show is in the post-production phase, in which 40 hours of
raw video is being edited into a 90-minute television program, says Davis. "This
process is different from what theater folks are used to, and it has been an exciting
learning process to go through. From the ėrough cuts' that we have seen, we're
very confident that the piece will work on television. Sometimes the camera moves
in to tell a more intimate story than is possible for a live audience to experience,
so we think the WETA audience will get a strong impression of the work we did
here at TFA and George Mason University."
The show is scheduled to air on WETA, channel 26 on most cable and broadcast
networks, on Saturday, April 6, from 9 to 10:30 p.m., and Sunday, April 7, from
2 to 3:30 p.m.
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