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Ah, Yes . . . Chaos
Apr. 17th, 2006 06:22 pmDidn't expect to have anything happen today worth note, but Havel's Temptation showed up in the mail today, and now that I've read most of it, I see why Edward Einhorn thought this was the play for me to direct in Untitled Theatre Co. #61's HavelFest in October. Yeah, this is a play for me, and I'm on page 83 of 102. Edward said when he re-read it, he was thinking that, and when he got to the final stage direction, he knew it was the one for me, so of course I started by reading the final stage direction. Yup, it ends with the whole damned play coming apart in chaos and smoke and unbearably loud music and painfully bright lights like I seem to have a habit of doing, from my productions of Wellman's Harm's Way to Foreman's Miss Universal Happiness, Symphony of Rats, Egyptology, and Cafe Amerique. I think a few others, too. I think I had the chaos in a few shows, then followed it with a quiet short coda. No coda here. I may no longer be a believer, but I still like shows to wind up in some kind of metaphoric but clear Heaven, Hell, or Purgatory. This one ends in Hell, all right.
Now, to figure out if this show goes up at The Brick or The Ohio, and start casting it. Have a few ideas on that front. If I do it at The Ohio, I can play the part of "The Director" myself, as Berit will be able to be in the booth. At The Brick, I will probably have to run tech myself, and cast someone else in the part. Good part for me, though, with a nice resonance carried in by the director of the play being the director of the scientific institution in the play. Still, I've first thrown it to Edward to decide, if he wants to.
One thing I don't like about the play -- a number of tiny and/or nonspeaking roles that shouldn't be double cast with any other roles. Has to happen sometimes, but I never like it.
Otherwise, listening to the sound cues for That's What We're Here For again and thinking about it as I check out the InterWeb. And how does this show end? Purgatory, I think. I have an image that will end one of the acts, either with the "title song" by the AT&T Singers at the end of part 1 or with the reprise of the song at the end of the show. I kinda lifted the image from the last shot of the 1974 Hungarian film Bástyasétány hetvennégy (aka Singing on the Treadmill or Singing on the Endless Band), which I was lucky enough to see twice in 1988 and haven't been able to find since, but it's more than perfect to go here. I'd like it better at the end of part 1, but then I have to top the image at the end of part 2, and the only way to do that is to have the cast start coughing up blood violently during the final musical number, which will be a real bitch to pull off. If I save the quieter image for the end of the show, it sends the audience out with a too peaceful kind of a dark image, if that makes sense -- a vision of a frozen, faux-cheerful Purgatory instead of the sickening, bilious, evil, bloody Purgatory this piece should end in. And I also don't have a good image to send them out to Intermission with.
Of course, besides the technical problem of the blood -- a pain, but surmountable -- there is the harder craft-oriented job of staging a final image of horrible violence and fear and terror in such a "light" way that it is disturbing and upsetting as intended, and not come off as hit-you-over-the-head *S*Y*M*B*O*L*I*S*M*. I think it's an acting attitude thing I'll really have to get across to the performers. A fine line. And perhaps a hard one to walk when stage blood will be spurting from you. Well, that's the job.
Creating beautiful chaos through perfect order.
Now, to figure out if this show goes up at The Brick or The Ohio, and start casting it. Have a few ideas on that front. If I do it at The Ohio, I can play the part of "The Director" myself, as Berit will be able to be in the booth. At The Brick, I will probably have to run tech myself, and cast someone else in the part. Good part for me, though, with a nice resonance carried in by the director of the play being the director of the scientific institution in the play. Still, I've first thrown it to Edward to decide, if he wants to.
One thing I don't like about the play -- a number of tiny and/or nonspeaking roles that shouldn't be double cast with any other roles. Has to happen sometimes, but I never like it.
Otherwise, listening to the sound cues for That's What We're Here For again and thinking about it as I check out the InterWeb. And how does this show end? Purgatory, I think. I have an image that will end one of the acts, either with the "title song" by the AT&T Singers at the end of part 1 or with the reprise of the song at the end of the show. I kinda lifted the image from the last shot of the 1974 Hungarian film Bástyasétány hetvennégy (aka Singing on the Treadmill or Singing on the Endless Band), which I was lucky enough to see twice in 1988 and haven't been able to find since, but it's more than perfect to go here. I'd like it better at the end of part 1, but then I have to top the image at the end of part 2, and the only way to do that is to have the cast start coughing up blood violently during the final musical number, which will be a real bitch to pull off. If I save the quieter image for the end of the show, it sends the audience out with a too peaceful kind of a dark image, if that makes sense -- a vision of a frozen, faux-cheerful Purgatory instead of the sickening, bilious, evil, bloody Purgatory this piece should end in. And I also don't have a good image to send them out to Intermission with.
Of course, besides the technical problem of the blood -- a pain, but surmountable -- there is the harder craft-oriented job of staging a final image of horrible violence and fear and terror in such a "light" way that it is disturbing and upsetting as intended, and not come off as hit-you-over-the-head *S*Y*M*B*O*L*I*S*M*. I think it's an acting attitude thing I'll really have to get across to the performers. A fine line. And perhaps a hard one to walk when stage blood will be spurting from you. Well, that's the job.
Creating beautiful chaos through perfect order.
