Kurt Weill - Composing Threepenny

We are a week away from the start of The Threepenny Opera at Signature Theatre and could not be more excited to have Mack back in town. In previous posts we explored Berchtolt Brecht and his contributions to Threepenny. This time around we thought it would only be fair to explore the other major half of the Threepenny team, composer and longtime collaborator, Kurt Weill.

Kurt Weill

Kurt Weill was a German composer active in the early 20^th century. A leading composer of the stage, he was known for his collaborations with Bertolt Brecht. With Brecht as a partner, Weill helped create pieces and productions such as, The Threepenny Opera, his most well-known work, which includes the popular ballad “Mack the Knife”. Weill held the ideal of writing music that served a socially useful and direct purpose. 

"I have never acknowledged the difference between serious music and light music. There is only good music and bad music."

– Kurt Weill

Kurt Julian Weill was born on the 2^nd of March, 1900. The son of a cantor and the third of four children, Kurt grew up in the Jewish quarter in Dessau, Germany. Displaying musical talent at the age of 12, he began taking piano lessons and writing music. His earliest composition was written in 1913 and titled “Mi Addir” (Jewish Wedding Song) In 1915, Kurt started taking private lessons with well known Albert Bing, who taught him piano, composition, music theory, and conducting. (The Bing family would eventually become like a second family to Kurt.)

Kurt graduated from secondary school  in 1918 and promptly enrolled at the “Berliner Hochschule fur Musik” at age 18. At school he studied composition with Engelbert Humperfinck, conducting with Rudolf Krasselt, and counterpoint with Friedrich E. Koch. Unfortunately, family hardships due the aftermath of World War I forced him to abandon his studies in 1919 and return home to Dessau to teach at the Friedrich-Theatre.

A dashingyoung Kurt.

During his time at the theatre Kurt found time to compos an orchestral suite, a symphonic poem of Rainer Maria Rilke's The Lay of the Love and Death of Cornet Christopher Rilke as well as Schilflieder, a cycle of five settings of poems by Nikolaus Lenau. In December of 1919, through the help of Humperdinck, Weill was appointed as Kapellmeister at the newly founded Stadttheater in Lüdenscheid, where he directed opera, operetta, and singspiel for five months, and also composed a cello sonata and Ninon de Lenclos, a now lost one-act operatic adaptation of a play by Ernst Hardt.

Upon his return to Berlin, Weill had an interview with Ferruccio Busoni in December of 1920. After examining some of Weill's compositions, Busoni accepted him as one of five master students in composition at the Preußische Akademie der Künste in Berlin. From January 1921 to December 1923, Weill studied music composition with him and also counterpoint with Philipp Jarnach in Berlin.  During his first year he composed his first symphony, Sinfonie in einem Satz, as well as the lieder Die Bekehrte (Goethe) and two Rilkelieder for voice and piano. In order to support his family in Leipzig while he was at school Kurt also worked as a pianist in a Bierkeller tavern.  

It was during his second year of schooling that Weill came more into the public limelight. Kurt joined the November Group's music faction of Berlin, a group of leftist artists. In addition to joining The November Group, in November 18, 1922, his children's pantomime Die Zaubernacht (The Magic Night) premiered at the Theater am Kurfürstendamm. This would be the first public performance of any of Weill's works in the field of musical theatre. In December 1923, Weill finished his studies with Busoni.

The following year, the conductor Fritz Busch introduced him to the dramatist Georg Kaiser, with whom Weill would have a long-lasting creative partnership resulting in several one-act operas. At Kaiser's house in Grünheide, Weill also first met the actress and his future wife Lotte Lenya in the summer of 1924. Lenya and Weill were married twice; in 1926 and again in 1937 (following their divorce in 1933). Lenya took great care to support Weill's work, and after his death she took it upon herself to increase awareness of his music, forming the Kurt Weill Foundation.

 

Brecht and Weill were frequent collaborators on
a number of different projects.

Weill’s best-known work was The Threepenny Opera (1928), a reworking of John Gay's The Beggar's Opera written in collaboration with Bertolt Brecht. Weill's working association with Brecht, although successful, came to an end over politics in 1930. Although Weill associated with socialism, after Brecht tried to push the play even further into a left wing direction, Weill commented, according to his wife Lotte Lenya, that he was unable to "set the communist party manifesto to music."

In March of 1933, Weill fled Nazi Germany for the United States of America. A prominent Jewish composer, Weill became a target of the Nazi authorities, who criticized and interfered with performances of his stage works.  Rather than continue to write in the same style that had characterized his European compositions, Weill made a study of American music, and his American output, though held by some to be inferior, nonetheless contains individual songs and entire shows that not only became highly respected and admired, but have been seen as seminal works in the development of the American musical.

Eastman Opera Theatre production of Street Scene 2013

Weill himself strove to find a new way of creating an American opera that would be both commercially and artistically successful. The most interesting attempt in this direction is Street Scene, based on a play by Elmer Rice, with lyrics by Langston Hughes. For his work on Street Scene Weill was awarded the inaugural Tony Award for Best Original Score.

Apart from "Mack the Knife" and "Pirate Jenny" from The Threepenny Opera, his most famous songs include "Alabama Song" (from Mahagonny), "Surabaya Johnny" (from Happy End), "Speak Low" (from One Touch of Venus), "Lost in the Stars" (from the musical of the same name), "My Ship" (from Lady in the Dark), and "September Song" (from Knickerbocker Holiday).

On the 3^rd of April, 1950, shortly after his 50th birthday Weill suffered a heart attack and died in New York City. He was buried in Haverstraw, New York. The text and music on his gravestone come from the song "A Bird of Passage" from Lost in the Stars, itself adapted from a quotation from the Venerable Bede.

This is the life of men on earth

Out of darkness we come at birth

Into a lamplit room, and then –

Go forward into dark again.

Although Weill claimed that he "didn't give a damn about writing for posterity," Maxwell Anderson prophesied in his eulogy to Weill that "it takes decades and scores of years and centuries to sift things out, but it's done in time -- and Kurt will emerge as one of the very few who wrote great music."

"The most original single workman in the whole musical theater, internationally considered, during the last quarter century... Every work was a new model, a new shape, a new solution to dramatic problems." – Virgil Thomson on Weill

Tune in next week as we explore Weill's influence on the world of music both on and off the stage and how his diverse and extensive career shaped the world of musical theatre and performance. 

 Bretolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera runs from April 22nd - June 1st at Signature Theatre. Call 703 820 9771 for tickets and showtime information. 

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Influences and Characteristics of Brechtian Theatre

With Signature Theatre's fast approaching production of The Threepenny Opera, we thought it would be useful to explore some influences on the man himself and just what Brechtian Theatre is and how it will no doubt influence the upcoming production. 

From a young age, Brecht had strong opinions about the ideas, art, events and politics that significantly affected Germany in the first half of the 20^th century. Brecht was constantly questioning authority in his plays and forcing his audiences to critique the established order too.

Marxism

(From: www.hsc.csu.edu.au/drama/hsc/studies/topics/2758/Brecht.htm#m4)

Karl Marx

While researching economics for a play in the 1920s, Brecht began studying Marxism. He started developing his “alienation” theory for theatre based on Marx’s ideas about production. Under capitalism, Marx contended that since everything is a product for sale, all human lives, relationships and values become products. The workers become de-humanized and are incorporated into the machinery of production. Brecht applied this idea to theatre, both in content and style. Many of his plays deal with socio-economic problems of capitalism and power, but Brecht also applied Marx’s ideas about production to how his plays were performed. He wanted audiences to see the literal production process of the play, such as the lighting grid or the action backstage, so that they would have to think about the process, not just the final product.

Theory

(Source: www.hsc.csu.edu.au/drama/hsc/studies/topics/2758/Brecht.htm#m4)

To appreciate Brechtian theatre, it is necessary to understand two of Brecht’s key theoretical terms:

1.      Epic Theatre - Form of didactic drama presenting a series of loosely connected scenes that avoid illusion and often interrupt the story line to address the audience directly with analysis, argument, or documentation; associated particularly with the German theatre movement led by Bertolt Brecht in the 1920s

2.      The Alienation Effect - Technique designed to distance the audience from emotional involvement in the play through jolting reminders of the artificiality of the theatrical performance.

In his book Das Kapital, Marx argued that, in modern industry, commodities seemed alien because capitalistic production did not reveal the signs of its production. We see the final product without knowing where it came from. The pervading world view of capitalism, where products confront workers as something entirely separate from their makers, was to Marx a false one, perpetuated to the political advantage of the wealthy ruling classes.

This production of The Threepenny Opera uses Brechtian 

techniques such as exposing the sides of the stage 

in addition to commenting about capitalism with the Coca-Cola design. 

Brecht reinterpreted Marx's concept of alienation as a theatrical ideology, in order to displace realism and to show up the hidden agenda of the theatre of the time. Brecht's theatre aimed to provide its audience with ways of looking at bourgeois reality as an unnatural political ideology produced in the interests of profiteering. He wanted to alienate or estrange the audience from everyday reality so that it could be reinterpreted in a new light.

In his essay The Modern Theatre is the Epic Theatre, Brecht stated that his theatre work is based on a "radical separation of the elements of production,” rather than the unity of action seen in Realism. Brecht found this supposedly realistic illusion to be dishonest, in that it seduced the audience to accept subliminally its representation of reality as an unchangeable and apolitical view of the world.
By distancing his audience from the world within the play, Brecht wanted to make audiences aware that stage realism, like life outside the theatre, is made, not given.

Brechtian techniques in The Caucasian Chalk Circle.
The stage is mostly bare; the child is clearly a toy

The German description of Brecht’s alienation effect literally translated means “to make strange.” This concept requires the audience and actors to retain a degree of critical detachment from a play and its performance, to be objective and not empathize or identify with the characters or the events that take place in the play. Some of the techniques Brecht used to create alienation included changing the scenery in front of the audience, projections, treadmills, hoists and musicians on the stage.

Through using these techniques, Brecht aimed to involve the audience in the process of the play's production and what it was communicating. The audience of Epic Theatre is invited to consider and enjoy how the theatre fabricates its fiction, rather than passively accepting an illusion of reality onstage.

Although Brecht criticized capitalism, he was also criticized by the Communist Party for not enforcing social realism and providing solutions in his plays. But Brecht, of course, didn't want to immerse his audiences in “reality” and then tell them what to do. Instead he wanted them to "cry tears from the brain," to absorb messages that they could interpret on their own and then make their choices to act.

Characteristics of Brechtian Theatre

Example of Brechtian Technique: Recent London West End performance of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus had the actors sit in chairs onstage and watch each other perform instead of disappearing offstage when they have said their lines.

Structure: Audience should construct their own interpretation of events.

·        Episodic, disconnected montage of scenes.

·        Often not in chronological order.

·        Purposefully open ended so that the audience needs to arrive at its own conclusion of how the events are linked together.

·        Events are narrated on a grand scale, unrestricted to time and place.

Staging: Audiences should see what’s happening “behind-the-scenes.”

·        Often a bare stage to prevent the audience from being absorbed in the fictional reality of the play’s setting.

·        Exposed stage “machinery” such as the lighting grid and exposed wires.

·        Back wall and wings of stage exposed.

Design: Intentionally shatter the feeling of “realism.”

·        Use of technology to project words and film onto the stage that comments on the performance.

·        Historification – projecting news clips to make the audience put the play into a historical context.

·        Placards that announce when the scene will begin.

·        Design looks mechanical or industrial (i.e. conveyor belts, pipes, wheels)

Music: Meant to comment on the action, not add to the mood of the scene.

• Discordant with the action onstage.
• Musicians are onstage with the actors, not “hidden” under the stage.
• Incorporating popular culture in an ironic way.

Acting & Characters: Keep the audience critical of the play’s heroes.

• Actors should not be 100% connected to their character.
• Actors should present their character instead of be their character.
• Even the “hero” of the story has flaws.

Bretolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera runs from April 22nd - June 1st at Signature Theatre. Call 703 820 9771 for tickets and showtime information. 

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A Big Bertolt Brecht Biography

We are weeks away from the opening of Signature Theatre's production of Bretolt Brecht's, The Threepenny Opera. To better help ourselves, our cast / crew, and our patrons, we thought it would be useful to explore the man himself and a bit of his biography and the background surrounding the show. 

“Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.” –  Bertolt Brecht

Brecht’s Legacy 

Bertolt Brecht was a German poet, playwright, director and political activist known for his theory and contributions to epic theatre. According to Brecht, a play should first and foremost cause audiences to think intellectually, rather than only aim to emotionally affect them. Brecht contradicted the popular theory that theatre should be as lifelike as possible to create a realistic illusion. Instead, Brecht wanted audiences to be aware that they were viewing a constructed world so that they could critique the characters onstage while they were watching instead of being passive observers swept up in the story.

Biography

(An article from www.gradesaver.com/author/bertolt-brecht/)

Bertolt Brecht was born on February 10, 1898, in the medieval city of Augsburg, part of the Bavarian section of the German Empire. Married in 1897, his father was a Catholic and his mother a Protestant. His father worked in a paper factory. His mother was ill with breast cancer most of his young life, which would later influence the creation of some of the women in his plays. He had one brother, Walter, who was born in 1900.

Brecht was a sickly child, having a congenital heart condition and a facial tic. He suffered a heart attack at the age of twelve but soon recovered and continued his education.

A young Brecht.

Like most students, he was educated in Latin and the humanities. Brecht was exposed at a young age to Luther's German translation of the Bible, whose text appears in many of his plays, particularly Mother Courage and her Children. While in school he began writing. By age sixteen, he was writing for a local newspaper and had written his first play, The Bible. By nineteen, he had left school and started doing clerical work for World War I, prevented from more active duty due to health problems. After the war, he resumed his education at the University, intending to study medicine but becoming more interested in literature and philosophy.

Brecht’s curiosity and exploration extended to his sexual life as well. By the age of sixteen, he began to frequent a brothel as part of a conscientious effort to broaden his experiences. Between sixteen and twenty, he apparently pursued eight girls simultaneously, including Paula Banholzer, the woman who gave birth to his illegitimate child in 1919. He is known to have experimented with homosexuality, often inviting literary and musically inclined male friends to his room on weekends in order for them to read erotic compositions.

  

In 1917 Brecht enrolled as a medical student at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where he would attend Arthur Kutscher's theatre seminar. Although Kutscher had a reputation as something of a theatrical guru, Brecht was unimpressed. He went so far as to harshly criticize one of the instructor's favorite plays, Hanns Johst's The Lonely One, a biographical drama about the life of nineteenth century dramatist C.D. Grabbe. The impetuous young Brecht suggested that he himself could write a better play on the same subject. The result was Brecht's first play, Baal, an effort that Kutscher considered vile and nauseating.

Drums in the Night (1922)

In 1918, Brecht's studies were temporarily interrupted when he was conscripted and had to serve as a medical orderly in World War I. During this period, he wrote his second play, Drums in the Night, which tells the story of a soldier who returns home from the war to find his fiancée engaged to a war profiteer. This was the first of Brecht's plays to be performed, and his theatrical theories had, apparently, already begun to take shape, for he filled the auditorium with banners instructing the audience not to become too emotionally involved in the proceedings. Drums in the Night, which premiered at the Munich Kammerspiele in 1922, drew rave reviews from Herbert Ihering, and even earned Brecht the Kleist Prize, Germany's highest award for dramatic writing. Thus Brecht, from the very beginning, found himself in the spotlight. That same year, the promising young dramatist married the opera singer and actress Marianne Zoff. Their daughter, Hanne Hiob, born in 1923, would become a famous German actress.

Helene Weigel

In 1924, after receiving productions of The Jungle of Cities at Max Reinhardt's Deutsches Theater and Edward II at the Prussian State Theatre, Brecht moved to Berlin, a move he deemed necessary to continue his dramatic career. During the next few years, Brecht produced a string of well-received plays, the most popular of which was probably The Threepenny Opera, which he adapted from John Gay's The Beggar's Opera along with composer Kurt Weill. In 1929, Brecht married Helene Weigel (he had divorced Marianne Zoff in 1927) who had already borne him a son, Stefan. The new couple also had a daughter, Barbara, who was born shortly after the wedding and who, like Brecht's other daughter, would go on to become an actress.

Brecht and Kurt Weill

However, even as his literary fame was soaring, Brecht found his interests shifting towards politics. In 1927, he had begun to study Karl Marx's Das Kapital, and by 1929 he had embraced Communism. His solidifying political beliefs would soon become evident in his plays as well. Another Brecht/Weill collaboration, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, caused an uproar when it premiered in Leipzig in 1930 with Nazis protesting in the audience.

In February 1933, Bertolt Brecht's career was suddenly and violently interrupted as the Nazis came to power in Germany. The night after the Reichstag (German parliament building) was burned down, Brecht wisely fled with his family to Prague. His books and plays were soon banned in Germany and those who dared stage his plays found their productions unpleasantly interrupted by the police.

The exiled dramatist bounced around from Prague to Vienna to Zurich to the island of Fyn to Finland, where he lived for a while in Villa Marlebäck as a guest of the Finnish author Hella Wuolijoki. During this period of exile, while Brecht awaited a pending visa to the United States, he also completed the plays Mother Courage and her Children (1939), The Good Person of Szechwan (1941), and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Uri (1941). In May of 1941, Brecht finally received his U.S. visa and relocated to Santa Monica, California.

Brecht before the House of

Un-American Activities

Unfortunately, Brecht's stay in America would not be as successful or as lengthy as he might have hoped. In 1947, during the years of the "red scare," the House Un-American Activities Committee called the playwright to account for his communist activities. Originally, Brecht was one of several witnesses who had refused to testify about their political affiliations. But on October 30, 1947, he appeared before the committee, wearing overalls, smoking a cigar, cracking jokes, and making constant references to the translators who transformed his German statements into English ones he could not comprehend. Although he outwitted his investigators with half-truths and skilful innuendo, Brecht feared the irrational political climate, and shortly after his testimony took a plane to Switzerland, not even waiting to see the opening of his play Galileo in New York.

Brecht and Weigel on the roof of the
Berliner Ensemble

On October 22, 1948, after 15 years of exile, Bertolt Brecht returned to Germany, settling in East Berlin where he was welcomed by the Communist cultural establishment and immediately given facilities to direct Mother Courage at the Deutsches Theater. The following year he founded his own company, the Berliner Ensemble, and in 1954 he was rewarded with his own theatre--the Theater am Schiffbauerdamm. Brecht quickly discovered, however, that the German Democratic Republic was not quite his ideal brand of Communism, and he was often at odds with his East German hosts.

Brecht

Brecht wrote very few plays in his last years in Berlin, none of them as famous as his previous works, although he did make some attempts at a play following the careers of Einstein and J. Robert Oppenheimer, and he was said to be contemplating a play in response to Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot at the time of his death. In addition, he wrote some of his most famous poems during these last years, including the "Buckower Elegies."

In 1955, Brecht received the Stalin Peace Prize. The following year, he contracted a lung inflammation and died of a coronary thrombosis (heart attack) on August 14, 1956.

Bretolt Brecht's The Threepenny Opera runs from April 22nd - June 1st at Signature Theatre. Call 703 820 9771 for tickets and showtime information. 

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Beaches Off Book - Iris Rainer Dart

Signature Theatre's latest and greatest world premiere musical, Beaches, features book and lyrics written by the novel's original author, Iris Rainer Dart. Earlier in the year, the Director of Education, David Zobell had the pleasure of sitting down with Iris during one of Signature's Off Book sessions at the Shirlington Library. Take a look and listen to the video below to find out more about Iris, Beaches, and the amazing work being done on and off the stage at Signature Theatre.

Beaches runs till March 30th, extended due to popular demand. Call 703 820 9771 for tickets and showtimes.

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The Reviews for Hero Worship Are In.

With Hero Worship going into its final day of performances this coming Monday the 17^th, we thought it couldn’t hurt to talk ourselves up some. What follows is a snippet of some of the feedback we have received.

Hero Worship (2014). Photo by Dennis Deloria

“What a terrific evening of theatre!  Joe Calarco has given these talented students a provocative and timely script that forces both us to consider many aspects of what it means to be a soldier, including the sacrifices soldiers make, the impact on their families and the opportunities they have. The serious subject matter is sprinkled with humor that was especially appreciated by us Washington “insiders.” - Bob H.

Hero Worship (2014). Photo by Dennis Deloria

 “This is an emotionally charged play that I personally believe should be presented to a wide audience - amazing story!” – Barbara B.

““Hero Worship” is an extremely informative and at the same time moving theater experience….The student performers are something to behold!  Who would believe that high school student could perform at this professional level with such short preparation time.  Not to be missed.” – Steve K. 

Hero Worship (2014). Photo by Dennis Deloria

Hero Worship performs  March 17th at 8:00 PM. Tickets are free, but reservations are required. To reserve seat, call 703-820-9771.

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Hero Worship - Words From the Writer

As you may know, Signature in the Schools Hero Worship is slated to have its first public performance this evening at 8:00 pm. We on staff in the Education Department at Signature Theatre thought it would be interesting to hear from the writer of the show himself, Joe Calarco, and his ideas, thoughts, and reasons for this show and this program as a whole.

I’ve been writing for the Signature in the Schools program for the past nine years. Most of the pieces I have written have dealt with, at least in part, some conflict going on in the world either now or in the past. Each year, I try and find some parallel in our contemporary world so that the actors can more passionately dive into their characters and so that the student audiences who come and see the play can more easily relate to what they’re seeing on stage.

Hero Worship (2014). Photo by Matt Strote

This year’s play, like half of the nine plays I have written for the program, focuses on America at War. I realized tonight that by the time I wrote my first play for this program, America was engaged in two wars. By my second year with the program I was ready to write about America’s conflict in Iraq. This year’s play is about D-Day but also focuses on modern teenagers wrestling with the current war we are engaged in. In writing this play I realized that there are students in the program this year who have little to recollection of a time when America has not been at war.

Revolution (2013). Photo by Denni Deloria 

Only a half of one percent of the U.S. population serves in the military, so like much of the country who doesn’t serve or know someone currently serving, for me war and armed conflict can feel distant, like something that is happening “over there. As “up” on current events as I like to think I am, writing these pieces has taught me that I am not nearly as present or aware as I should be.

I think these students learn something as well. What they learn goes far beyond what it means to be a theatre artist. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. They’re doing their own research on the wars covered in the play and on PTSD. Their worldview is expanding as a result of this influx of information. And if there is an argument for why this program should be more funded, and more well known, that is it. I think what Signature Theater and David Zobell, led by Marcia Gardner before him, are doing is unique and vital and is changing young people’s lives for the better.

Un-American (2012). Photo by Dennis Deloria.

Hero Worship performs March 10th and March 17th at 8:00 PM. Tickets are free, but reservations are required. To reserve seat, call 703-820-9771.

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Emily: Cue to Cue

For the next several weeks, different cast and crew members of our talented Signature in the Schools program will be taking over our blog. Check back for frequent updates to get an inside track on their process ad mindset with our latest production, Hero Worship!

Today we hear from our lovely and talented Stage Manager, Emily. A four year Signature in the Schools veteran, Emily has worked her way up the stage management ladder thanks to the valuable experience she has obtained through the program.

Emily is on book and ready to go.

When I auditioned for the Signature in the Schools program my freshman year I had no idea what a stage managers job was.  That year I joined the program as an Assistant Stage Manager and learned all about the job and its responsibilities.  I loved every part of stage management and felt that it was the best way I could use the skills I have in theatre.  Thanks to the Signature in the Schools program I continued to work on productions and have since decided to pursue a career in stage management in college.  I am now a full blown Stage Manager on my fourth Signature in the Schools production. 

                Signature in the Schools has absolutely changed my life in a way I never could have imagined.  This unique opportunity has given me a newfound confidence and taught me so many things.  From learning information covered in boot camp to different experiences encountered in rehearsals, everyday at Signature presents a new challenge.  I have not been treated with this much respect or given this much responsibility anywhere else.  The chance to work in a professional environment as a high school student has truly been a blessing in my life.  Although this is the last year I am able to participate in the program I know I can look forward to continue working in theatre because I feel Signature has properly prepared me to do so.  

Hero Worship performs March 10th and March 17th at 8:00 PM. Tickets are free, but reservations are required. To reserve seats, call 703-820-9771. Reservations are available beginning February 10th.

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Chronic Hero Syndrome

Does everyone possess the capacity for heroism? Is heroism thrust upon individuals or do the individuals in question thrust it upon themselves? In Signature in the Schools upcoming production, Hero Worship, young armed service members of The United States of America wrestle with the desire to be heroes and the desire to remain intact physically, mentally, and emotional.

“Wanting to be a society-certified hero is a specialness issue. I see people killing themselves at work and at home to pay for mortgages that are too much for them, or taking vacations they can’t afford in the right spots, all to be special. Wanting a medal in war is just killing yourself at a faster pace, for all the same wrong reasons.” – Karl Marlantes, Vietnam Veteran

Sometimes, the desire to be a hero can lead to doing it for the wrong reasons. The desire to be recognized and seen as extraordinary can cause people to take unnecessary risks or disobey orders and cause more harm than good. Vietnam veteran Karl Marlantes remembered a critical moment in the heat of battle, when he had to decide whether or not to run under heavy fire to try to retrieve a kid from his platoon named Utter, despite the orders from his Staff Sergeant to stay with the rest of the group:

“I was split three ways. I’d known Utter for months. He was my guy…he was hit. I simply wanted to get to him before he bled to death. Another part of me was screaming to listen to [Staff Sergeant] Bell and stay safe. Then there was the third part. I wanted a medal.

            I’d always wanted a medal, ever since I looked at my father’s medals from World War II, ever since I’d seen Audie Murphy in To Hell and Back, ever since I was never chosen first when we chose up sides. All that. It wasn’t enough to do heroic things. I had to be recognized.”

Karl Marlantes ended up going after Utter, shooting uphill against incoming enemy fire. He brought Utter back, but the young soldier died anyway from a bullet wound to the head. Marlantes was left wondering whether he had accidentally shot Utter while he was charging up the hill like an action-hero.

Mr. Incredible has a case of
Chronic Hero Syndrome

The desire to be a hero can also become an obsession, referred to as “Messiah Complex” or Chronic Hero Syndrome, when a person is incapable of turning away from someone who needs help. This can be a very admirable quality, but taken to the extreme, it could lead to the person becoming exhausted or depressed when they can’t save everyone. They are idealistic to the point that they struggle to face the reality that sometimes you cannot save everyone. Their compulsive heroism also can make them easy to manipulate. The enemy can use their compassion to trick them or discourage them. Other times, the hero may charge into a situation to save someone without knowing the whole picture, making matters worse. This happens frequently to vigilante heroes, ordinary people who act outside of the law and police forces to administer justice on their own. If the vigilantes are not well- trained or well-intentioned, they could cause as many problems as the criminals they fight!

Some of our most famous fictional heroes in pop culture have a Messiah Complex!

• Batman: Often pushes himself to his physical limits to save people, and ends up wearing himself out.
• Mr. Incredible: Can’t help helping people, even if it costs him his job; makes him easy to manipulate.
• Harry Potter: Voldemort uses his need to be a hero as a way to lure Potter to him: “He will hate watching the others struck down around him, knowing that it is for him that it happens. He will come.” (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)
• Avatar: The Last Air Bender: Katara often takes side-quests because she can "never, ever turn [her] back on people that need [her]."
• Doctor Who: He breaks the “Time Lord” rules by leaving his planet to use his time-traveling powers to help humans; so he is not there to help his own planet when it’s destroyed.
• Jack Shepherd (from Lost): Jack often charges into situations and ends up causing more harm than good.
• Assassin’s Creed: Revelations: Ezio is continually distracted by side-quests.

Heroism, particularly in a “soldier” or “warrior” occupation, can inspire people to greatness. Heroes are an important part of our culture because they represent “the best of us.” However, misguided heroism, or heroism for the wrong reasons, can turn that positive motivation into a negative thing. The fixation with being “special” can lead people into risky decisions that hurt, rather than help, the situation. The real heroes are often the ones who don’t receive metals, who do the job because they have to, not for the glory.

Hero Worship performs March 10th and March 17th at 8:00 PM. Tickets are free, but reservations are required. To reserve seats, call 703-820-9771. Reservations are available beginning February 10th.

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