It’s not every day that college students get to have fun with puppets, let alone incorporate them into a play. For the play “The Good Woman of Setzuan,” the cast not only uses puppets, but also interacts with them on stage as fellow characters. These aren’t marionettes or sock puppets either. They are more like the characters found on television’s “Sesame Street,” though less clownish-looking and made with a mixture of plastic, felt and wood.

Richard Bay, director for “The Good Woman of Setzuan,” designed the puppets for the play. Bay said at first the play was supposed to be performed with masks, but said he didn’t like the actors’ faces covered.

“With puppets, we can see the actors’ reactions, and those add range to the story,” Bay said. “For example, there’s one scene where (a character) just breaks down, and while the cast is staring at the puppet, the audience is staring at her face.”

“The Good Woman of Setzuan” was written by Bertolt Brech, the author of “The Three Penny Opera.” The play tells the tale of three gods who, for reasons unknown, try to find “one good person” on Earth. They discover this “good person” in Shen Te, a young prostitute. With the money given to her by the gods, Shen Te tries to lead a decent life with compassion toward her neighbors.

She Te’s kindness is taken advantage of by her neighbors and she is robbed of the necessities needed for her survival. To bring back order to her household, she disguises herself as her hard-hearted “cousin,” Shui Ta, a man who is Shen Te’s complete opposite.

The title role is played by senior theater major Jennifer Ly.

“(Shen Te) is a really complex character. She’s the two dualities of one person: One with a rational heart that people take advantage of and one that doesn’t have a heart,” Ly said.

This will be the play’s premier performance on campus, and many students may not have heard of the play before this year. Neither of these things deters its director, however.

“I like plays that are challenges and not your everyday plays. This one is about finding a good person and trying to identify what is being good is,” Bay said.

Through its plot and characters, the “The Good Woman of Setzuan” poses many questions about humanity, questions about good and evil. Bay said the play poses these questions: “Is one good because of new, personal experiences? Is it only the religious people who are good? What happens to the good when money is involved?”

Although the story was originally supposed to be set in China, Bay admitted that Brecht didn’t know much about the country. So instead, the story is set in a fantasy land with no specific time or place; what Bay describes as “a juxtaposition of settings.”

Stephanie Conrad, an artist who painted the 14 backdrops for the show over the summer, said the challenge of having so many images is that they need to mesh together and yet still stand on their own.

“It was a fabulous project,” she said.

Besides Conrad’s backdrops, Richard Stockton constructed a long bridge leading out to the audience.

“I’m the set director, but all I have to say is ‘this is what I need,’ and they just go ahead and do it,” Bay said.

Bay said that another thing that makes the play special is its incorporation of music written by Sacramento State student Christopher Cook. Bay has worked on music with him before, and described Cook as “a really brilliant person to collaborate with.”

However, Bay firmly said the play is not a musical.

“Brecht doesn’t want the audience to get too emotionally involved, so just as the action is rising, he stops for a comment or a song.”

And while the production grows and matures, the many people who participate grow together as well.

“It has a feel of community and people doing what they love,” Isabel Maick, an assistant for the play, said.

“I haven’t seen a cast get along so well in a long time,” Bay said. “It makes things a lot smoother.”

With everything that has been put into the production, is there any reason students should not see “The Good Woman of Setzuan”? The cast doesn’t think so.

Theater major Shana McCarl said that her involvement in “A Good Woman of Setzuan” has been a fun and challenging experience.

“It’s going to be unlike anything they’re going to see,” she said.

“It’s not an original piece. There’s so many layers on top of it, and has a meshing of elements,” Ly said.

But for Bay, it is the questions the play asks about human nature he thinks students will find interesting.

“The play asks: ‘Is one really good? Are we good people? What do we do to survive? Do we cheat? Hurt one another?'”

“The Good Woman of Setzuan” performances are at 8 p.m., tomorrow and Saturday, and Oct. 24 and 25; at 2 p.m. on Sunday and Oct. 26; and at 6:30 p.m., Oct. 22 and 23. Tickets are $5 for children 11 years-old and younger and $8 general admission for the 6:30 p.m. shows. All other performances are $8 for children, $10 for students, seniors and Sac State employees, and $12 general admission. Tickets are available at Sac State’s Ticket Office, (916) 278-4323 or tickets.com.

Kyrie Eberhart can be reached at [email protected]