oldman also chose to have some pieces of the text spoken in unison by the ensemble, and other pieces spoken by one actor. That's partly because he sees some passages as being about universal truths, while others relate to very specific, private moments. "The text in many ways is like a piece of music," he says. "It felt to me like harmonizing between the individual consciousness and the collective consciousness."

For instance, in "Near a Church," Agee tells of accidentally frightening an African American couple when he runs after them to ask for information. Agee tries to reassure them but soon realizes that, as a white man, he automatically poses a threat to them and that there's no way he can put them at ease. Goldman has one actor speaking most of Agee's narration but also has all the white members of the cast advancing with him toward the two African American actors portraying the couple. "In a way, Agee's trapped in his own whiteness," Goldman says. "So there's something about having all those whites in the background."

Such an approach doesn't make for straightforward rehearsals. Going into the five-week-rehearsal period, Goldman knows pretty much how he wants the scenes to look and sound. But he uses rehearsals to fit the different parts and movements to the personalities and strengths of his cast. Two weeks before opening night, he and the actors are still occasionally experimenting with who will say a line here or cross the stage there.

But Goldman is as characteristically calm as he was in the first throes of planning and casting. "The style and the rules have to be made particularly between us as an ensemble," he says. "This is the part that I really love."

Throwing the book to the floor

t's been said that many a reader has thrown Let Us Now Praise Famous Men to the floor, "maddened by its resistance to ever settling into a familiar story or a coherent, sequential narrative," as Goldman puts it. He was hoping his audiences wouldn't feel the same way. "I hope that people don't give up on it because they're confused by the form," he says. "There are some scenes that are moving in familiar ways. And then there are parts that are definitely more philosophical, intellectual. So you hope that you're giving them enough candy to keep them, that those more familiar scenes make the audience want to work harder in the scenes that demand that."

And the cast has to keep working hard too. Goldman and stage manager Sarah Woods (a senior) worked with the actors relentlessly on not paraphrasing one line of the lengthy script. "A lot of Agee's language is so flowery and beautiful that if it's paraphrased it's easy for it to get very general in tone, and then it can get kind of precious," Goldman says. And that's when the audience may tune out. "Agee's whole drive was to be as exact as possible about what's really true about these people. In order for the performers to share that with the audience, they have to know precisely what it is they're getting at. They have to guide the audiences through those sentences a little bit."

A little confusion is okay

ome people loved the play. And some were confused. "A few of my students said, ‘What was that?'" Goldman laughs. But that's okay with him. "With a text like this, if you're being faithful to it, you have to allow for the fact that you're gonna have to make some new conventions, and it's not gonna be a totally familiar experience for the audience. Because, as Agee keeps saying, it's an experiment."

The press gave the performance good reviews, though, which helps. And several people came back more than once, always a good sign. Goldman says, "That is part of what is exciting to me about this kind of project—that it is demanding of the audience."

Streetsigns produced Let Us Now Praise Famous Men in association with the Department of Communication Studies.