Directed by Tea Alagic
Written by Bertolt Brecht
Translated by Kristina Mendicino

Scenic and Costume Design: Zane Pihlstrom
Lighting Design: Gina Scherr
Video Design: Iva Simeic
Sound Design: Brian MacQueen
Stage Manager: Shawn Senavinin

Featuring: Emily Dorsch, Eric Gilde, Brad Love, David Matranga, Kathleen McElfresh, Gilbert Owuor, & Thomas Russell

Photos by Gina Scherr

About the Production
Baal (2005) is a radical reimagining of Bertolt Brecht’s first play, originally set in early 20th-century Germany. In this adaptation, the story is relocated to Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory, where the boundaries between celebrity culture, creativity, self-destruction, and performance become increasingly indistinguishable.

Within this conceptual framework, Andy Warhol himself directs and films a “Factory” version of Baal, creating multiple overlapping layers of reality. The audience observes actors playing Factory performers who, in turn, are portraying Brecht’s characters. This layered structure produces a complex metatheatrical experience in which fiction and reality continuously reflect and distort one another.

About the Work:
Baal, by Bertolt Brecht, follows a gifted but self-destructive poet who rejects society’s rules and pursues pleasure without regard for those around him. Moving through affairs, betrayals, and acts of violence, he leaves a trail of damaged lives before confronting his own isolation and decline.

Written early in Brecht’s career, Baal is a provocative work about artistic freedom, appetite, masculinity, and moral collapse. Tea Alagić directed the production for the Ensemble Company for the Performing Arts in New Haven.