Hey all -
here are my notes from today's meeting.
1. Ashley: redo the "obnoxious ringtone" scene. We need to student to be softer, a little bit embarrassed perhaps, then forgets it's rude (carried away), then apologetic again.
2. Sara: pull out a section of Skin of Our Teeth for "rehearsal" module/scene. The student should have an interesting reaction to it - revealing his passion for theatre, perhaps this play in particular. This can help us connect to him more.
3. Ryan: collect bullet point facts about Mayors Bading and Meier for Marion to ad-lib in those scenes.
4. Sara: gather some ad-lib-able voice/sound actor exercises for a warm-up/rehearsal module as a point of departure.
5. Anne: redo the Happy Days segment to make the tension more defined between the merging/mixing of the worlds, particularly the entrance of Meier and the role of the radiocaster.
6. Sara: work on the end of the HD scene - the collapse of Marion needs to be more defined, and the student might offer to help her - help her, then when she can't cross a certain barrier (her control issue), he asks if he can help her by continuing the tour - she passes the mantle to him rather than him taking it so abruptly.
7. SAra: also work on defining a few images/moments on the way to the basement, look over the basement scene and the ending to project any ideas you might have for next week.
8. Julie: create bullet point factoids for Marion for throughout the play, but mainly for the lobby scene.
9. Julie: pull out a poem or two about labor that might get used during the "assembly line movement" section.
10. Ryan: create a list of names of those who died in WWII for the directors to use.
11. EVERYONE: send their changes to Sara (script-keeper) so she can integrate them. We can list Marion's historical factoids, security questions, WWII names as appendices and just put a place holder for them in the script itself.
other free-floating conceptual ideas:
a. trying to clarify when the two worlds meet/overlap etc.
b. trying to keep the sense of mystery to what happens behind closed doors in KSE.
c. trying to keep the tension between security/control and creativity.
d. link labor of factory to the new labor of the building? creation?
e. play magic tricks on people. Make the building feel alive, mysterious.
thanks everyone!
until next week...
Friday, February 27, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
new script
i got a new version of the script up until the William/Mother scene. it has an enhanced beginning, elevator vinettes, ashley's Ford/Bading scene, and the movement piece. whew. so, i will email it to those who i have their email addresses but for directors, if you want it please email me at semosey@uwm.edu and i will reply with the attachment. also, i have a list of security questions that i will bring on friday. thank you all for all the great ideas and as always i am totally open to suggestions.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Notes from 2.20 meeting
Here are some items that we talked about and their corresponding decisions and/or tangents that would effect the script and direction of the project:
1) We talked a lot about the importance of having a concept and then using that concept to go back to (a beacon if you will....and I will...bad joke) when making decisions in the direction of the piece. The following are ideas, words about how people saw this script and where it should go.
-structure,creativity,security
-we have to pick between history and storytelling and we have to narrow down which one and when at different points in the script
-poking fun of history. Are we using history as backdrop to tell our story?
-confusion: we’re setting it up under the guise as a historical tour, so when does it start to begin to come alive? and how does Marion react to that? This could be a directors choice
-not pure history, satire history? fun history? and then it becomes something else....and the tension between the security and the creativity parallels this.
-What is Marion’s reaction to the William/mother/dad scene when she can’t control the “history” or her tour.
-movement between the Ford and memory scene. -Ashley is writing this.
-what is the level of surprise for Marion when these uncontrollable things happen and how much of this is fake surprise and how much is serious.
-Is the concept about more the difference btwn-real and not real vs. control and not control? There is a fine distinction, some of it is manifestation of real stories but starts to turn into something else.
-Has Marion done this before? Is this the tour day that went wrong?
-themes: ridiculousness of the building, no practicing, no art on the walls, locks, security codes. To Marion: this is what it’s supposed to be. it’s shocking and unacceptable.
-What happens to Marion in her transformation? The question becomes...How does this piece end? When and how does the student begin to lead and what will aid in a believable, sympathetic jump when he is kind of a jerk.
-If we’re having Marion be the rules and the regulations, then is the student representing the creativity and the altered perception of history? How can we use these and what stage images do we use to convey this
-is the student a modern kid of UWM?
-If there is this competition between Marion and Student, who wins? Is it important to keep it ambiguous or do we need a clearly defined ideology.
-What are we asking the audience to do with the surrealness of the scenes (with happy days and the fire). We agree that the “climax” of the play is in this scene.
We then began our conversation of step by step writing/directing decisions from when Marion and the tour gets into the elevator:
-idea was brought up for vignettes on different floors. The ideas is that they would on their travels go to the wrong floor...and there would be a vignette and then it would go away and they would continue on their travels. Perhaps this is a place for images/themes/ideas to come through that do not in the script, or perhaps this is a place to insert something that will reappear later in the play (woman with shawl, radical news paper people)....Ideas: picture boxes of the woman in the shawl on the floor? Are they just images? Once we spell out the movement for the last scene, we can plug this into these vignettes. Research side note on sound for machinery: Millfire...Loren Watson - steel mill noise? What then happens with Marion in relationship to these vignettes? If we do this how do we use them and how "involved" do they need to be tech/movement/speech?, people in lab coats?
We had a lengthy discussion on the transformation of the student because we're more solid on the fact that he needs to be either sympathetic in dialogue, needs to know something Marion doesn't, or something needs to happen for the audience to buy into him and follow him: how does this happen, maybe he is learning as she is falling off the wagon. "How does this manifest itself in a Playable moment?"(Anne)
What action would the student take that would change him - to realize that Marion is breaking down. How do we soften him?
options discussed: move the cellphone earlier, he can know someone in the cast? character? What could redeem him? - the disturbing part of his conversation is that he is disregarding what happened in the reading of the names. What act of justice needs to happen? Does the student have a special talent - he has to make himself vulnerable - instrument, sing, you would see him in a different light. Maybe he knows someone in the happy days cast?
Discussion was made on the move between the faculty member and the Ford/Bading scene: Right now there is a conversation/argument/discussion that Bading and Ford are having, it is loud and this is what initially shifts audience focus.
-Leading up to the bading ford scene there may be the possibility of people having to wait on the 5th floor elevators for other groups to arrive: What do we do in this time before the others arrive?
-then the Ford tour....audience movement piece of factory work (they will be lead with the passing of a piece of machinery hand to hand as they walk around the hallway to the William/mother scene - concept is that they become the mechanization through experience - the machine tool/piece will then change to a handing out out of pink slips (Research: historically accurate pink slips?)Is Ford doing this? Does he begin our scene with a tour and then fire us at the end?
-how do transition to William after the "firing" ends?
-Childhood sounds: Running, water, bubbles of bubbles, maybe these can transform to dish soap bubbles easily?
-folks expressed the want to put in the movement a sense or honor the the difficulty of the work that they are doing at that time in the factories (munitions).
-Ideas were put forth that mom/dad need to be seen together in order to define them as a couple before William starts in.
-how does William enter? slow? loud or soft? How do we capitalize on the anticipation in his parents of his homecoming? -this may be a directors decision
Name scene/commissioning scene talk:
-William trailing off...is where it ended now. These are men in his neighborhood, or We’re in the atrium by the tile and door/balcony. Having other actors hand out something - blue stars and gold stars...symbolizing death of all the soldiers.
-how then do we introduce the student in a more sensitive light when he has such a biting transition?
-as these names are being read, what role do we want the audience to play? zig - zag? do we let them purge of this because it's such an intense scene or do we wait until the happy days?
-images people brought up -domino.
-We have to respect or use this emotion wisely.
-Birthday candle, birth and loss? blue and gold star?
Research ideas:
-What did people who “had dignity” when they didn’t have a job at this time - during the depression or around that time. How can we symbolize the looking for work? Will work for food signs, advertise themselves
-what if we had the father fired and when we see him again, he is in disarray, maybe a link to current economic times (small part of the father's imagery embodies our current economy)
-WUWM featured experiences of people surviving the depression, is there a possibility in getting those transcriptions and have an actor read parts of them?
-Julie has a book of factory poetry that can be put into the scenes as filler or layering if need be.
-Wildspace did a piece on "work" using interviews. Could we use some of these?
Thanks for making it through the post...it was a long one. If you noticed I missed something or you would like to add, please comment.
1) We talked a lot about the importance of having a concept and then using that concept to go back to (a beacon if you will....and I will...bad joke) when making decisions in the direction of the piece. The following are ideas, words about how people saw this script and where it should go.
-structure,creativity,security
-we have to pick between history and storytelling and we have to narrow down which one and when at different points in the script
-poking fun of history. Are we using history as backdrop to tell our story?
-confusion: we’re setting it up under the guise as a historical tour, so when does it start to begin to come alive? and how does Marion react to that? This could be a directors choice
-not pure history, satire history? fun history? and then it becomes something else....and the tension between the security and the creativity parallels this.
-What is Marion’s reaction to the William/mother/dad scene when she can’t control the “history” or her tour.
-movement between the Ford and memory scene. -Ashley is writing this.
-what is the level of surprise for Marion when these uncontrollable things happen and how much of this is fake surprise and how much is serious.
-Is the concept about more the difference btwn-real and not real vs. control and not control? There is a fine distinction, some of it is manifestation of real stories but starts to turn into something else.
-Has Marion done this before? Is this the tour day that went wrong?
-themes: ridiculousness of the building, no practicing, no art on the walls, locks, security codes. To Marion: this is what it’s supposed to be. it’s shocking and unacceptable.
-What happens to Marion in her transformation? The question becomes...How does this piece end? When and how does the student begin to lead and what will aid in a believable, sympathetic jump when he is kind of a jerk.
-If we’re having Marion be the rules and the regulations, then is the student representing the creativity and the altered perception of history? How can we use these and what stage images do we use to convey this
-is the student a modern kid of UWM?
-If there is this competition between Marion and Student, who wins? Is it important to keep it ambiguous or do we need a clearly defined ideology.
-What are we asking the audience to do with the surrealness of the scenes (with happy days and the fire). We agree that the “climax” of the play is in this scene.
We then began our conversation of step by step writing/directing decisions from when Marion and the tour gets into the elevator:
-idea was brought up for vignettes on different floors. The ideas is that they would on their travels go to the wrong floor...and there would be a vignette and then it would go away and they would continue on their travels. Perhaps this is a place for images/themes/ideas to come through that do not in the script, or perhaps this is a place to insert something that will reappear later in the play (woman with shawl, radical news paper people)....Ideas: picture boxes of the woman in the shawl on the floor? Are they just images? Once we spell out the movement for the last scene, we can plug this into these vignettes. Research side note on sound for machinery: Millfire...Loren Watson - steel mill noise? What then happens with Marion in relationship to these vignettes? If we do this how do we use them and how "involved" do they need to be tech/movement/speech?, people in lab coats?
We had a lengthy discussion on the transformation of the student because we're more solid on the fact that he needs to be either sympathetic in dialogue, needs to know something Marion doesn't, or something needs to happen for the audience to buy into him and follow him: how does this happen, maybe he is learning as she is falling off the wagon. "How does this manifest itself in a Playable moment?"(Anne)
What action would the student take that would change him - to realize that Marion is breaking down. How do we soften him?
options discussed: move the cellphone earlier, he can know someone in the cast? character? What could redeem him? - the disturbing part of his conversation is that he is disregarding what happened in the reading of the names. What act of justice needs to happen? Does the student have a special talent - he has to make himself vulnerable - instrument, sing, you would see him in a different light. Maybe he knows someone in the happy days cast?
Discussion was made on the move between the faculty member and the Ford/Bading scene: Right now there is a conversation/argument/discussion that Bading and Ford are having, it is loud and this is what initially shifts audience focus.
-Leading up to the bading ford scene there may be the possibility of people having to wait on the 5th floor elevators for other groups to arrive: What do we do in this time before the others arrive?
-then the Ford tour....audience movement piece of factory work (they will be lead with the passing of a piece of machinery hand to hand as they walk around the hallway to the William/mother scene - concept is that they become the mechanization through experience - the machine tool/piece will then change to a handing out out of pink slips (Research: historically accurate pink slips?)Is Ford doing this? Does he begin our scene with a tour and then fire us at the end?
-how do transition to William after the "firing" ends?
-Childhood sounds: Running, water, bubbles of bubbles, maybe these can transform to dish soap bubbles easily?
-folks expressed the want to put in the movement a sense or honor the the difficulty of the work that they are doing at that time in the factories (munitions).
-Ideas were put forth that mom/dad need to be seen together in order to define them as a couple before William starts in.
-how does William enter? slow? loud or soft? How do we capitalize on the anticipation in his parents of his homecoming? -this may be a directors decision
Name scene/commissioning scene talk:
-William trailing off...is where it ended now. These are men in his neighborhood, or We’re in the atrium by the tile and door/balcony. Having other actors hand out something - blue stars and gold stars...symbolizing death of all the soldiers.
-how then do we introduce the student in a more sensitive light when he has such a biting transition?
-as these names are being read, what role do we want the audience to play? zig - zag? do we let them purge of this because it's such an intense scene or do we wait until the happy days?
-images people brought up -domino.
-We have to respect or use this emotion wisely.
-Birthday candle, birth and loss? blue and gold star?
Research ideas:
-What did people who “had dignity” when they didn’t have a job at this time - during the depression or around that time. How can we symbolize the looking for work? Will work for food signs, advertise themselves
-what if we had the father fired and when we see him again, he is in disarray, maybe a link to current economic times (small part of the father's imagery embodies our current economy)
-WUWM featured experiences of people surviving the depression, is there a possibility in getting those transcriptions and have an actor read parts of them?
-Julie has a book of factory poetry that can be put into the scenes as filler or layering if need be.
-Wildspace did a piece on "work" using interviews. Could we use some of these?
Thanks for making it through the post...it was a long one. If you noticed I missed something or you would like to add, please comment.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
calendar
Here are the writing/collaboration (aka devising) meetings we have left with suggestions for content:
Friday 1-3 Feb 20th (elevator through Mom/Dad/William)
Friday 1-3 Feb 27th (Mom/Dad/William through Happy Days)
Friday 1-3 March 6th (Happy Days through Basement)
Friday 1-3 March 13th (the whole)
spring break
rehearsals start
We'll likely be shaping some of the later stuff as we talk about earlier scenes as well...but it helps to at least know we have a time set aside to address it specifically! This is a suggestion - let me know if you have other ideas.
A
Friday 1-3 Feb 20th (elevator through Mom/Dad/William)
Friday 1-3 Feb 27th (Mom/Dad/William through Happy Days)
Friday 1-3 March 6th (Happy Days through Basement)
Friday 1-3 March 13th (the whole)
spring break
rehearsals start
We'll likely be shaping some of the later stuff as we talk about earlier scenes as well...but it helps to at least know we have a time set aside to address it specifically! This is a suggestion - let me know if you have other ideas.
A
opening scene
I am putting together a list of security questions. Some straight, some off the wall. Also, I am going to see what I can come up with as far as Marions entrance. Any extra ideas for her quirks?
Monday, February 16, 2009
MKE Historical Society Trip
In an effort to help make my research more integrated with the writing of this play, please post the themes/ideas/periods of time/inventions/business...(you get the point) that would be most beneficial to the enhancement of the script below.
Currently I have information on health in the early 19c. and I'm looking into testimonials from factory life. I also am looking into why the Ford plant closed and for what reason. If anyone knows the name of the plant that would be fantastic (was it just "Milwaukee Ford Motor Company")
Things are really changing fast on the script and I want to be able to get data that is applicable to the character in the context of the scene. The idea is that I will get the ideas before I make a trip to the MKE County Historical Society this Wednesday at 9:30. I invite anyone specifically the writers to accompany me. I can drive will leave from my house in Riverwest. Let me know so we can arrange.
Currently I have information on health in the early 19c. and I'm looking into testimonials from factory life. I also am looking into why the Ford plant closed and for what reason. If anyone knows the name of the plant that would be fantastic (was it just "Milwaukee Ford Motor Company")
Things are really changing fast on the script and I want to be able to get data that is applicable to the character in the context of the scene. The idea is that I will get the ideas before I make a trip to the MKE County Historical Society this Wednesday at 9:30. I invite anyone specifically the writers to accompany me. I can drive will leave from my house in Riverwest. Let me know so we can arrange.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
NOTES From Friday's meeting
Hey all - here's what I can remember about what we said on Friday.
1) first point of engagement is title/posters. Perhaps embed a "code" on the posters and/or ticket that people "need" to bring with them?
2) second point of contact is the security guard. Writers will work on making a list of "invasive" questions - from strange to comic that either the guard or a planted guard can ask those who enter.
3) third point of contact is the house management. There were ideas about them not using words to take payment, but using only signs (like the building itself). Perhaps fingerprinting people?
4) Idea that Marion enters from the bike path area, bringing bags with her and goes to the bathroom to put on the vestiges of her power.
5) Next playable moment might be Marion talking with the audience. Various ideas here as she adlibs the history and in general tries to keep tight order. Enter from elevator? holding court by the elevators? Student uses hand-dryer while she's trying to speak?
We had a really fascinating (to me at least...) discussion of the progression of Marion's character. We talked about how she begins trying to control the audience and the historical tale. Then eventually, in the Happy Days section, she realizes she can't do this anymore and she must make a choice. We outlined several options here.
1) she chooses history and melts into the building somehow, becoming a ghost of sorts.
2) she finds it very difficult to choose...and decides too late to embrace creativity (encouraged by the faculty member), but can't make it downstairs with the rest of the group. She finally makes it into the final scene. We talked about using the pull chord/divider things here to symbolize her inability to cross the line of control/history into creativity.
let me know if I didn't quite get all the options there - it was a rich discussion, with you all making great points about complexity of character for Marian.
1) first point of engagement is title/posters. Perhaps embed a "code" on the posters and/or ticket that people "need" to bring with them?
2) second point of contact is the security guard. Writers will work on making a list of "invasive" questions - from strange to comic that either the guard or a planted guard can ask those who enter.
3) third point of contact is the house management. There were ideas about them not using words to take payment, but using only signs (like the building itself). Perhaps fingerprinting people?
4) Idea that Marion enters from the bike path area, bringing bags with her and goes to the bathroom to put on the vestiges of her power.
5) Next playable moment might be Marion talking with the audience. Various ideas here as she adlibs the history and in general tries to keep tight order. Enter from elevator? holding court by the elevators? Student uses hand-dryer while she's trying to speak?
We had a really fascinating (to me at least...) discussion of the progression of Marion's character. We talked about how she begins trying to control the audience and the historical tale. Then eventually, in the Happy Days section, she realizes she can't do this anymore and she must make a choice. We outlined several options here.
1) she chooses history and melts into the building somehow, becoming a ghost of sorts.
2) she finds it very difficult to choose...and decides too late to embrace creativity (encouraged by the faculty member), but can't make it downstairs with the rest of the group. She finally makes it into the final scene. We talked about using the pull chord/divider things here to symbolize her inability to cross the line of control/history into creativity.
let me know if I didn't quite get all the options there - it was a rich discussion, with you all making great points about complexity of character for Marian.
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