Northeast State Community College’s production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest has a level of professionalism not usually seen in its productions, said Michael Aulick, the director of Northeast’s Theatre Division.
Aulick brought Derek Davidson, a former Barter Theatre director, to direct the school’s second spring production, Aulick said.
Northeast State has never had a professional director with the background and experience of Davidson, Aulick said.
“The Northeast State Theatre program is committed to excellence and we want our students to work with as many good theatre people as possible,” he said. “I am very happy at the product that Derek is helping us develop. Derek is not giving us our performances. He is helping us develop them.
“He is a great fit for an educational theatre program. He is an asset to this program and I hope to have access to him for years to come.”
Another aspect that makes this production unique is that Aulick, a professional actor himself with a master’s degree in fine arts in acting, will not only be overseeing production, which continues Thursday through Sunday at Northeast State Auditorium, but he will also being portraying Randle McMurphy, an inmate who comes in and disrupts the institution. “When Derek became available (I was going to direct this show), I thought it would be a good fit for him to direct and me to act,” Aulick said. “I think it has been successful so far.”
Not only is this a new approach for Northeast State, but it is also a new experience for Davidson.
“Certainly it’s different having professional actors as opposed to people who are learning and doing it as a hobby,” Davidson said. “At Barter, that’s your job. You work all week, all day long. Now, you have to work around everyone’s schedules.”
Davidson has a doctorate in theatre history and criticism from the University of Washington in Seattle, and after his degree was complete, he became a professor in the English department of Ashland University in Ohio.
He is now teaching freshman English as Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C., and has also just concluded performances as the father in Proof at Milligan College, he said.
Aulick is glad his students have this opportunity to work with a director who has so much professional background and experience, he said.
“The more experience they get working with directors who approach the art differently, the more well-rounded their training is going to be and the more versatile they are going to be as actors, technicians, etc,” he said.
“They are going to be better at their craft and more marketable to other educational theatre programs as well as professional theater companies.”
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was written by Ken Kesey and later adapted into a play by Dale Wasserman. It is based on a struggle for authority between inmates in an insane asylum and the head nurse, Nurse Ratched.
McMurphy brings sex, violence and a disregard for authority to the institution and constant conflict between the inmates and the nurses, Aulick said.
“I think it’s worth saying,” he said. “It has a great message of conflict between an anti-hero and anti-villain.”
McMurphy is seen as a hero to the men of the institution, but to members of the audience, he is seen as immoral, Aulick said. Although he changes the men in the institution for what seems to be the better, he does it without moral character through cussing, drinking and sex. Therefore, Aulick said, he is not a true hero, but an anti-hero.
In the same way Nurse Ratched is “a villain in sheep’s clothing,” Aulick said.
“She smiles and most of the time, does not raise her voice and probes into these men’s lives under the guise of therapy,” Aulick said.”However, she is controlling and emasculating every chance she can be.”
In this case, Nurse Ratched views herself as the hero, but many in the audience may see her as a villain because of her overpowering mistreatment of the inmates, Aulick said.
“The interesting thing about most characters is that they are all incarcerated in an insane asylum,” Davidson said. “I wanted people who were creative and fearless.”
One of those fearless actors is Debby Shoun, who is portraying domineering Nurse Ratched. Among other roles, Shoun has played Luisa Pechenick in A Shayna Maidel at Jonesborough Repertory Theatre; Truvy Jones in Theatre Bristol and Johnson City Community Theater’s productions of Steel Magnolias; and Elizabeth Proctor in a Kingsport Cultural Arts production of The Crucible.
Ratched is seen by the audience as a “mean-spirited woman,” yet she views herself as the “inherent good,” who thinks she is there for the benefit of the patients, Shoun said. This is what interested her about the character.
“It is a challenge to create a character who always smiles and whosesaccharine lines must be delivered in such a way as to be perceived as evil,” Shoun said.
The control of authority is a major aspect of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Shoun said. Ratched uses the fears and insecurities of the inmates to control and maintain order for what she views is the benefit of the institution, she said.
She battles for that control with McMurphy. Aulick was intrigued by the character of McMurphy.
“Actors look for things that intrigue them,” he said. “He takes on Nurse Ratched to the detriment of his own character. He is huge. He commands attention every scene he’s in. Working on the size of this character is interesting to me.”
Aulick has found ways to relate to his character.
“I have always been kind of a black sheep in my family and in school,” he said. “I tended to feel outside of the normal working world. This guy comes in and isn’t really part of the institution.
“I kind of carved my own way when I started high school. I did what I wanted, not what my parents told me to do. I relate to him in the fact that I was a bit rebellious.”
Shoun, too, has found common ground for herself and the audience.
“I hope I can bring the realization that everyone is controlled by fear,” Shoun said. “Whether it is imagined or actual, the fear is real to them and controls every aspect of their lives.”
McMurphy and Nurse Ratched can both be seen as the antagonist in the play, Shoun said.
“It is hard to play Ratched as the protagonist,” she said.
“The audience wants to see her as the bad guy and she really is, but at the same time, she does not see herself as inherently wicked.”
This play hinges on the underlying battle between the logical and physical. This is a balance that is necessary in life, and these men lack this balance, Aulick said.
“They have a thirst for life,” Aulick said.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest displays how humans are always in the struggle for control over not only their lives, but others as well. Triumph will occur in the end.
“I want the audience to decide for themselves who the winner is,” Shoun said. “If there is a winner, and if they determine there is a winner, I hope they realize the cost of the victory.”
The production will continue April 6-8 at 7 p.m., April 9 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $5 general admission and senior, $4 for groups of 10 or more, $3 for children seven and under and free admission for Northeast State students.
Adult language and themes occur in the play and may not be suitable for all audiences.
A talk-back, which allows audience members to ask the actors and directors any questions they may have concerning the production, with Derek Davidson and the cast will be held after the show on April 8.
Anyone interested in the play or how it was put together is welcome to attend the session.