The astonishing, true story of Austrian artist Oskar Kokoschka’s tempestuous love affair with composer Alma Mahler and the obsession that would drive him to commission a life-size doll in her likeness after their break up is the basis for a new musical making its world premiere February 25-March 6 at UC Santa Cruz’s eXperimental Theater.
Presented by the Department of Performance, Play & Design, directed by UCSC continuing lecturer Kirsten Brandt, and co-written by poet Amy Gerstler and composer Steve Gunderson, The Artificial Woman casts a feminist light on this chronicle of infatuation and fetish that unfolds in the artistic and intellectual hotbed that was Vienna just before World War I.
“This story hasn’t left me alone ever since I stumbled on it in grad school,” says Gerstler, who proposed it to Gunderson for their first time collaboration on a work of historical fiction. “It is fascinating, gripping, and raises so many questions about gender roles, women as muses, obsession and objectification, art making. The list goes on. Whenever I tell people about the young, avant-garde art star Kokoschka and Gustav Mahler’s widow, they say ‘No! This couldn’t have happened!’ Then I Google one of the four existing photographs of the original doll, and it’s a total surprise to everyone.”
The doll—which Kokoschka would dress, take to parties, and use as his studio model—plays a pivotal role in The Artificial Woman as its narrator and feminist center, speaking directly with the audience in Gerstler’s lyrical poetry to question all that it observes.
Much of The Artificial Woman is set to song. Gunderson composed more than 20 original pieces for the play that defy genre.
“I wanted to create a unique musical universe for this since it exists in a space between fantasy and history,” says Gunderson. “Sometimes it leans towards opera and sometimes to musical theater. It’s a new musical world and not an easy one to perform, but the student performers have been brilliant and really risen to the challenge. We have gotten so much insight into this play from them.”
The Artificial Woman was substantially reworked and refined through a quarter-long developmental workshop with UCSC theater arts students in spring 2021. The process was revelatory for the playwrights.
“The students had such important questions about the play and their characters,” says Gunderson. “It showed us so much about what would and wouldn’t work, and we made some big changes as a result.” Gerstler adds, “The students’ level of professionalism is very high. What they came up with taught us so much about what the play is. It’s a gift to develop something like this with bright, active, engaged, talented, and questioning minds.”
Brandt, who led the workshopping process, notes, “It’s really terrific for our students to work with something brand new. They are seeing how the process works, which is a rarity. It’s joyous to wrestle with new material and be the first to make discoveries. And there’s a gorgeous complication to this show that makes the work so invigorating. The students have really relished the whole experience.”
Joining the eleven UCSC actors on stage will be a live band made up of UCSC music students on piano, synthesizer, upright bass, and drums. PhD student Michael Blackburn is the music director.
The premiere of The Artificial Woman runs from February 25-March 6. Tickets can be purchased online.
