THE BRECHTFAST CLUB
Brechtian adaptation / political satire
2023
A collision of pop culture, historical materialism, and the alienation effect.
About the Work
THE BRECHTFAST CLUB
A theatrical adaptation of the movie The Breakfast Club
in the style of Bertolt Brecht
In the late 1980’s in the village of Shermer, East Germany, the five members of the worst-performing Stasi firm in the country and their boss work on a Saturday to try to reach their political dissident quota. Just when their ability to uncover secret intelligence seems hopeless, a special radio attachment expands their listening network all the way to the United States. What the Stasi hear, or what they think they hear, might not only pull them out of their slump, but also put an end to Gorbachev's Perestroika nonsense.
CONTENT ADVISORY: This play is a political satire containing mature and grim content.
Collaborators
Performing Artists
Ashwini Arora………….........SERGEANT COMRADE ALINA
Jimmy Bernatowicz…………. STAGE MANAGER
Maggie Conroy………………...MAJOR COMRADE KLARA
Miranda Jagels Félix………….MAJOR COMRADE ANDREAS
Alicen Moser…………............COLONEL COMRADE VEIT
Reginald Pierre…………….….CAPTAIN COMRADE BRUNO
Joe Taylor………………………..COMRADE JOSEF
Rachel Tibbetts……………….CAPTAIN COMRADE BERTHA
This is an original play, workshopped with this cast, who contributed significant content.
Production Team
Lucy Cashion: Producer, Director, Scenic and Sound Designer, Video Editor, Co-Playwright
Joe Taylor: Composer, Music Director, Video Artist, AV technician
Courtney Bailey: Co-Playwright
Jimmy Bernatowicz: Stage Manager & Assistant Director
Morgan Brennan: Lighting Designer
Liz Henning: Costume Designer
Yizhou Huang: Dramaturg
Bryce Palmer: Assistant Stage Manager
Cameron Schoeck: Additional research
Zach Laster: Carpenter
Lauren Tubbe: Scenic Charge
Spencer Lawton: House Manager
Jason Hackett: Production Photographs
Brian McLelland: Videographer
Will Bonfiglio, Spencer Lawton, Miranda Jagels Félix: Co-Producers
Commissioned Production
Xfest: A Festival of Alternative Theater & Dance
47 Circle Drive, Edwardsville, IL 62025
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Tuesday, September 12, 20237:30 p.m.
First Production
The Chapel, 6238 Alexander Dr, St. Louis, MO, 63105
June 1-11, 2023
With public support from the Missouri Arts Council, a state agency. With additional public support from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Process/Archive Note
The Brechtfast Club uses Brechtian strategies — episodic structure, interruption, direct address, music, and estrangement — to put a familiar American coming-of-age film under political pressure.
The work treats adaptation as a way of testing inherited cultural material: what happens when a film about individual identity is reframed through historical materialism, surveillance, ideology, and theatrical distance?