On Directing Assassins

by June Abernathy

While Assassins might seem like an attractive piece for a theatre to consider at first
glance - the Sondheim name, minimal scenery, smallish cast, gripping subject
matter - it is much more of an undertaking than it would first appear.

To begin with, you have the outraged chorus of everyone from the board to the
neighbors - "A MUSICAL? About Assassins? I just can't imagine what kind of musical
numbers you could do. Aren't you trivializing the subject? Aren't you glorifying the
Assassins?" Etc. etc. etc. One would think that musicals dealing with serious subject
matter had never appeared before. Everything from West Side Story to Cabaret to
Les Miserables and Miss Saigon completely forgotten. Or that Sondheim was known
for fluff - If you had seen Sweeny Todd, or Pacific Overatures, or even Anyone Can
Whistle, you would know that he could write a musical about Assassins without being
either trivial or sentimental. Nonetheless, that first knee-jerk reaction from the
uninitiated is the first hurdle - both to getting the show choice approved and to
getting an audience in the seats.

Once you begin casting, you realize that not only is the cast larger than you probably
thought, but you are faced with casting 9 « principals, with strong vocal demands
and specific physical types. (That « is there for the Proprietor - an ensemble member
who must nonetheless carry off the opening number). In a typical large musical, you
would only be faced with casting 2 or 3 leads and another 2 or 3 seconds - and your
chorus wouldn't usually need to be quite as versatile and skilled as this one does.
One of the ensemble has to play a convincing Emma Goldman. Another, a panicked
David Herold. Not simple. To add to the casting dilemma, the show has mostly men,
which in many areas are much more difficult to come by. Everyone in the audience
knows what Booth, Oswald, Fromme, and Hinckley should look like. Add to that
Booth's huge vocal range, or the fact that Hinckley really needs to play the guitar,
and you begin to see the difficulty. The Balladeer has to sing quite high, and ideally
play a banjo and maybe a guitar. He also needs to be charming enough for the
audience to identify with. Zangara has to be quite short, do a monologue in Italian,
and sing a tenor A above the staff. He should also be able to go from simplistic
immigrant befuddlement to palpable dangerous hostility in the blink of an eye. Find
that on the corner. Moore has to sing a respectable range, master the tricky rhythms
of the "Gun Song", and have tremendous comic timing while still convincingly playing
a confused middle aged housewife with a dangerous streak. There are no easy roles
in this show.

That "simple set" may not be so simple once you get into it. Are you using slides, as
they did in the original? What kinds of images, from what sources? How literal?
Setting the scene, or commenting on it? Both? Front or rear projection? But what
about crossover, what about noise, where does the screen (screens?) go? How literal
is the gallows? Does it lose something without real stairs? What about Byck's car?
Steering wheel or no steering wheel? Who shifts the scenery? The ensemble? A
crew? Do you have room? Do you have darkness? Where is the orchestra? How much
room will they take up? Can the conductor see the singers, or vice versa? How much
power will they need?
The show is prop hell, no doubt about it. The hand props are what place each scene
and each Assassin in time and place. The guns come to mind immediately, of course.
Some are described in the script. Most have to fire, although some can get away
without it. How historically accurate do you have to/want to be? Hinckley is supposed
to fire more than 6 times in succession - an automatic instead of a short barrelled .
22? Can you get blanks for an automatic? A .22 starter pistol fires 8 shots. Is that
enough? Moore used a .38 caliber Smith and Wesson revolver - yet, in the course of
the play, she has to whip it in and out of her purse about a thousand times, and she
fires her gun more than any other character - is a cannon like a standard S&W really
a good idea? She makes reference to the caliber in the gun song, but wouldn't a
snub nose police .38 work just as well? If you are historically accurate, you need at
least 6 different kinds of ammunition. (7, if you pad your arsenal with starter
pistols). What would that do to your budget? How big is your theatre? Can you fire
Oswald's rifle, or Squeaky's .45, or even Moore's .38 without deafening the
assembled? Half load, quarter load, no load blanks . . . How close are you to the
audience? Is it safe to fire even a blank pistol that close?

Aside from the guns, you have period newspapers, a 1975 KFC chicken bucket, a
period crutch, a period camera with working flash, a breakaway 1981 coke bottle, a
realistic electric chair, edible food, a realistic stuffed dog, tons of money and a
pocketwatch or two. A difficult prop show. Are you close enough to the audience for
them to be able to see what someone's period newpaper says? To read Emma
Goldman's pamphlet?

Costumes are similarly difficult. They certainly set the time and help define the
character. Byck's Santa suit, for instance, comes from his picketing the White House
on Christmas Eve of 1974, in the Santa suit with the sign described in the script.
Most have practical considerations as well. Booth should have spurs, for instance.
One popular theory is that he caught his spur in the bunting around the president's
box when he jumped, and that is why he fell and broke his leg. How to quick change
him from the opening to the barn and back? Underdress the bandaged leg and
distressed shirt? Where does he pocket his gun when his coat is off? Can he sit with
it in a pants pocket? If so, can he pull it from the pocket while sitting? Where does
Squeaky keep her gun? In reality, she wore a leg holster. Fun look, but is it practical
with a .45? Can she get it out of a robe pocket quickly to try to shoot Ford? Does she
have a waistband under the robe to tuck it in? How fast does Emma Goldman need
to be able to get in and out of her costume? Does she need help? What about the
guy playing David Herold, or Ford?

These are just some of the practical considerations that need to be discussed and
decided on early in the process. The artistic considerations await!

THE ARTISTIC CONSIDERATIONS

One of the single biggest questions - what to do with the Balladeer. Is he supposed
to be there to reflect the audience point of view (or what we hope will be their point
of view), to narrate, or to represent shallow, sound byte , TV America, the land
where all questions can be suitably resolved in a half hour less commercials? I think
he is there for the audience to identify with, one way or another. Some productions
have made more of the Proprietor, balancing him against the Balladeer as tempter
and enabler. This is difficult to do within the confines of the script - using him as the
bartender, or the photographer in JFK, or having him bring Oswald's wrapped rifle to
the stage. An interesting concept. Although this was not done in NYC or London, I
think I would use an older guy for the Balladeer, with some gray in the hair, some
lines in the face - someone who looked like he had been around long enough, and
lived through enough, to have the right to comment on these people. Not elderly,
but seasoned - still keeping the "folk singer" idea of the original production. Finding
that look in a guy who can sing squeaky tenor and play a banjo may be an
impossibility, of course. You could do without the banjo, (Patrick Cassidy didn't play
on Broadway) and just have it played from the pit, but it is a powerful image to
sacrifice.

One of the things that makes the show great is that most Americans prefer to think
of the Assassins as a collection of crazed nutballs, and the show forces you to
consider things from their perspective, which often means coming to the realization
that some of them had a point. It also means coming to the realization that they are
not all the same - that their motives vary considerably. It is important to keep that
in mind when casting and directing the show. While voices are important, and this is
a typically difficult Sondheim score, complete with tricky rythms and impossible
tessituras, the book is strong, and the acting is vitally important. Given the choice,
go with actors who sing rather than singers who act.

As the Assassins go, it is tempting to take just the obvious choices for each
character. Booth is undeniably charming, Moore is undeniably funny, etc. but don't
let them just play that. Each character has that important dark side. I think that that
is the reason Moore kills her dog. To remind us that she is dangerous. Make sure
Booth is sufficiently racist and obsessed as well as charming and manipulative.
Remind Moore and Squeaky that their attempts took place right after Watergate, and
not so far enough removed from JFK, Bobby, and MLK that had they succeeded, they
might well have thrown the country into a real uproar. Don't let them, (or Zangara or
Byck or Guiteau) get so funny that we forget that they are dangerous.

All the same, some of the Assassins (notably Booth, Czolgosz and Byck) were voicing
sentiments felt by a great many other people in the country at the time. While their
solution was obviously extreme, all of them had telling and uncomfortable points to
make, which the audience will find themselves agreeing with more often than they
would probably like. There are many who contend that Emma Goldman not only
served as inspiration for Czolgosz, but may actually have put him up to it. They have
a terrific scene in the show, which leaves this possiblity open. I did a production
where this was played on heavily, with Emma present at the Exposition, watching
Czolgosz get in line, wrap his gun, and etc., yet she disappeared before the shot was
fired. Emma Goldman scholars will disagree heartily, of course, and it may appear to
dilute Czolgosz's sincere commitment, but it was fun to try.

Be careful with your modern Assassins. Audience members tend to have a very
visceral reaction to the ones that they can remember first hand. Particularly Oswald,
of course. You can hear audible gasps, whispers and much seat shifting when they
first realize who he is, and even more when they first see that gun. There is a reason
he doesn't sing, at least for this scene. Even Hinckly and Squeaky though, affect the
audience in a different way than Czolgosz, or Guiteau. Scarier perhaps, because they
seem much more "real" somehow.
What about the debate about using "Something Just Broke" - a song that was added
for the ensemble following Scene #16 - the JFK scene. Purists will say that it wasn't
used on Broadway, and that the show is about the Assassins, not the victims. Others
will say that it was added by the original creators, and serves a definate purpose in
allowing the audience the emotional release that they need after the impact of the
JFK scene. One of the reasons for the song, and the single biggest reason in my
opinion, is that there is a tendency in the show to make the Assassins too
sympathetic, and the audience just hates that. They don't mind understanding their
motivations, as long as you don't try to force them to agree. They get upset with the
production when they feel that we are trying to justify the actions of the Assassins,
probably because that is one of the things that they feared the show would try to do
when they came in. The Assassins try to justify their actions, of course, but that
shouldn't come across as the message of the piece.

"Something Just Broke" helps to make them feel that their emotions and sympathies
are being considered. I also believe that the balladeer is key to letting the audience
know that their dislikes are as valid as their sympathies. I say this not to randomly
moralize, but because the other approach just doesn't work. Another important thing
that the new number accomplishes is tying in the ensemble with the show. The
ensemble can be used to great effect in the variety of roles that that they cover, and
"Something Just Broke" makes them a better integrated part of the show. Care
should be taken with the role doubling to make sure that you are not drawing an
unconcious parallel where you don't want one - particularly between the Proprietor
and other characters, or Emma Goldman and other characters. While the audience
will accept the convention of role doubling among the ensemble, they will still feel
the parallels. As I mentioned above, this can be used to good effect as well,
particularly with the Proprietor.

There are other artistic considerations, of course. But if you trust the material in
what Sondheim himself says is the only show of his in which he wouldn't change a
thing, you should do fine. Trying to impose too much "concept" on top of what is
already there will get you in trouble.

You can buy or rent "stage" guns, although that can run into considerable expense. I
do not recommend using a plugged barrel "stage gun" for Czolgosz (see below). You
might see if replica guns are available through your local ROTC or Army Reserve. You
might also check various gun shops and see if they will loan you guns in exchange
for tickets, advertising, or whatever. I have heard of some productions getting guns
through the police department. If you do not have an SAFD certified fight instructor
or weapons expert available to you, you should also check with one of these sources
regarding instructions on the use (including loading and cleaning) of these weapons,
and possible use of a firing range for practice. Guns should be emptied and cleaned
every night following the performance, and even though you are using blanks, guns
and ammunition should both be collected and locked up in separate places. Guns,
whether real or not, firing or non, should always be handled with respect and care,
and never pointed at another person outside of the actual blocking of the show. In
fact, in any but the very smallest house, many fight instructors will tell you to aim
slightly upstage of your target during the show. This is usually invisible to the
audience, but helps protect the actor playing the victim from the hot gasses and
stray bits of powder that vent through the barrel of a gun firing blanks. For the same
reason, you should never fire a blank gun pressed directly against someone's head.
They can be burned, deafened, and possibly killed. I cannot stress enough that you
should seek qualified instruction and take great care when handling weapons.

You will need at least 10 guns, possibly 11. Each of the 9 Assassins has a weapon,
and Lee Harvey Oswald actually has two - the rifle he uses to shoot JFK, and the
pistol that he is planning to kill himself with at the top of Scene 16. (Since it is
presumably the pistol that he kills the cop with later, it should be a .38 - but then, in
strict reality, he shouldn't have it with him at the Book Depository). You should have
at least on gun backstage, preferably on the person of a levelheaded prop person or
stage manager. This gun serves as backup in case one of the onstage guns misfires,
and can be used for offstage gunshots. It could certainly be a starter pistol. They
can't share guns because they are all onstage, pistols in hand, for the finale, so you
are looking at a minimum of 9 pistols + 1 rifle, and with a backstage gun, + 1 more
for a total of 11.

Some specific weapons and calibers are mentioned in the script - Moore's .38 (In
reality, she used a Smith and Wesson revolver),Czolgosz's .32 (Iver Johnson
revolver with black grip - rubber handle with owls stamped on the sides), and
Oswald's rifle (6.5 millimeter Mannlicher-Carcano rifle with telescopic site). As I
mentioned, Oswald also used a .38 cal revolver. Research told us that Squeaky
Fromme used a .45 cal pistol, (and a LEG HOLSTER). Booth actually used a colt,
from what we could tell. Hinckley used a .22 cal semi automatic short barrel..
Zangara used a .32 cal revolver . Guiteau used a British "Bull Dog" silver handled .44
cal revolver. He specifically chose the gun because he figured it would be on display
in a museum after the assassination, and he wanted it to look good. Byck used a .22
cal revolver. As you can see, to be historically accurate, you end up needing many
different caliber guns (and therefore ammunition). Blanks come in several sizes - full
load blanks which sound just like a real gunshot, as well as half load, quarter load,
and no load blanks, which are decreasingly less loud. (Which might be a good thing,
if you run the risk of deafening your actors or audience.) When I did the show, we
used + load blanks in the .38's and .32's

"That's great," you say, "but how can I cheat so that I don't spend my entire budget
on guns and ammunition, and/or kill or deafen audience members?" Many of the
characters can get away with guns that do not actually fire, and several can get
away with .22 starter pistols. (Much cheaper and safer, and fires 8 rounds without
reloading). In our production, we gave Booth a period "boot gun" derringer that
didn't fire. (We cut the soldier totally (saved a costume), and did Booth's suicide shot
in a blackout with the offstage gun. IF HIS GUN DOES FIRE, BE SURE THAT HE
REMOVES IT FROM HIS HEAD AND POINTS IT AT ARM'S LENGTH EITHER STRAIGHT
UP OR STRAIGHT DOWN FOR THE SHOT DURING THE BLACKOUT. FIRING A BLANK
GUN PRESSED TO YOUR HEAD IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS, AND CAN BE FATAL!

Zangara's gun didn't fire (He only fires when the rest of the group does, and no one
notices). Squeaky Fromme's .45 didn't fire (She and Moore pointed their guns at the
chicken bucket and took turns yelling BANG!, which escalated into various and more
frenetic attacks - machine gun fire, etc. Stupid kid stuff. When that was at it's
height, Moore actually (accidentally) fires her gun, which stuns them into silence and
scares them both to death before they collapse into giggles).The leg holster was too
cumbersome for our Squeaky to wear (darn it!), so she kept the .45 in a pocket of
her robe. Our Moore did have a .38, but a real Smith & Wesson is such a cannon that
it was a real problem to get in and out of the purse as quickly and as often as she
needs to be able to, so we used a snub nose .38 like the police have instead. We
gave Guiteau a silver handled .32 rather than a .44, to minimize noise and so he
could share ammo with Czolgosz. We had to give Hinckley an automatic so that he
could fire enough shots. Oswald's rifle didn't fire (Stylized gunshot, which we did that
way for three reasons. One, because he was down center aiming out the "window",
and there was too much chance of accidentally hurting an audience member, even
with a blank. Two, because to really shoot that rifle in our space would have
deafened the assembled. Three, we wanted to do this cool reverb effect with the
gunshot, which we accomplished by shooting an (offstage) .38 into a microphone
which the sound op could then run through a big reverb unit at the same time that
we overlaid a recorded shot. This takes split second timing. Endless echoes . . . ).
We gave Byck and Oswald .22 starter pistols, but either or both could get away with
guns that do not fire as long as enough other people can fire, so that the company
shooting together doesn't sound really pitiful.. Depending on the size of your house,
you might be able to get away with doing the actual gunshots offstage, but except
for maybe Booth (see above) or some kind of stylized shot like Oswald (see above), I
wouldn't recommend it. However, on a big stage you could probably get away with
all of your firing weapons being starter pistols, except that Oswald really MUST have
a rifle, even if it doesn't fire. A 30.06, or frankly, just about any bolt action rifle with
a sight will do, depending on the size of your stage. A period look to Booth's gun is
pretty necessary too, even in a big house.

IMPORTANT! It is dangerous to use a starter pistol or any other "stage gun" weapon
with a sealed barrel for Czolgosz. Starters and stage guns typically plug the barrel,
which prevents stray bits of powder and crap from ejecting that way. Since Czolgosz
is usually blocked to shoot the invisible McKinley down center, straight out at the
audience, this might seem like a good idea. But he is also supposed to wrap his gun
in a Handkerchief - it is how he gets it through the line, and it's mentioned in the
lyrics. Guns must vent in some direction, and the guns with plugged barrels
generally vent through the side of the gun. If that vent is blocked with a
Handkerchief, you can scorch or burn the Handkerchief and/or the actor's hand, or,
in a worst case scenario, cause the gun to explode. If you MUST use a gun with a
plugged barrel, make sure that Czolgosz is blocked to completely remove the
handkerchief before firing. He doesn't have much time.

So, these are the details on the guns for Assassins. Have a good (and safe!)

By request, some more detailed thoughts on the use of slides in Assassins:

It's easy to say, "Oh yes, let's use slides" without considering how that will affect
what you do with the rest of your production. And it's not just a matter of "should we
use them or not?", because using slides affects just about every aspect of
production. In my original article, I put that section in question form to emphasize
that there are more options than might be thought in regards to scenery and slides.
The use of slides makes a HUGE difference to the physical realities of set and light
design, particularly, as well as affecting blocking, timing, and overall tone. And the
physical limitations of your space can become a major factor in this decision. If slides
are to be projected from the front, they need to either be kept above the heads of
the actors or to one side or the other of the action to be seen. They need to be able
to find a front of house position that is a correct distance from the stage for the size
of image you would like to project (and different size lenses for slide projectors can
do wonders), and be accessible to be preset and reset. Rear projection allows you to
actually use slides a backdrop, but space limitations backstage are usually a big
factor in how far back you can set a projector, and therefore, how large an image
you are able to project. Slide projectors also give off a certain amount of heat, light,
and noise, which may be a problem in any location you give them. Using two
projectors and dissolving back and forth between them with a "Dove" unit (see your
camera store - you'll be there for the lenses anyway), is cleaner and MUCH more
attractive than using a single projector. I recommend some kind of emergency cut
off switch (or easy access to the plug!) in case they really go awry at some point.
Slides are particularly susceptible to Murphy's Law. Using a computer and
presentation program can help immensely.

Once the decision is made, you need to seriously think about the conceptual
statement that you want to make (or DON'T want to make) with your slides. A slide
which comments on the action of the scene below will add a very different tone than
one which complements the scene, or simply serves as a backdrop. In any case, the
director has to be aware of the ways that an audience's focus can and should be
split.

The original NY production used slides, as did my production and many others. It can
be done without them though. And, depending on how you want to employ slides in
the production, as well as the physical realities of your space, you may want to make
different choices than the original production did. Slides can be used to create or
reinforce a literal setting, like Booth's barn, or the bar, or Hinckley's rec room. They
can serve to mirror the scene without being quite so literal as well. In my production,
for instance, the transition into the Moore/Fromme scene had slides of buttons with
typical slogans of the day to set the mood, as well as time and place. They can also
be used to counterpoint or comment on what is happening on stage. We did all three
at one point or another. Many productions would choose to use them in only one or
two of these capacities.

As far as where to get them, you basically have two choices. You can buy or rent
them from a theatre that has done the show before, or you can create your own
using images from books, newspapers, and the like. (Be careful of copyright
considerations). We went to a company in Tampa that specializes in creating slides.
(I'm sure most major cities have something of the kind.) They not only photograph
material to make slides, they also use the computer to either create images or text,
or alter or enhance images which have been scanned in. Because of this, and some
incredible research, we could have material as varied as the buttons above, period
newspaper headlines and pages, a copy of an engraved invitation to Guiteau's
hanging, images of all the relevant Presidents superimposed on American flags, a
picture of a glass bottle factory in operation, and 8 different pictures of Ronald
Reagan in a variety of exposures.

I believe that slides can add a lot to the production. I would certainly use them if I
did the show again. I just think that it is important for directors and actors to be
aware of where they are going to be, and what they are going to show, when putting
the show together, because they definitely color an audience's perception of a scene.
If they are not conceived as part of the event from the beginning, then they can just
look hasty and distracting, rather than enhancing the production. Plan ahead!

So, these are the details on the guns for Assassins. Have a good (and safe!)