Here are the meeting notes, you will be happy to see that they are relatively short and sweet.
During this meeting we went through the script to pick parts that were fantastic and parts that might need to be changed.
-some folks had questions about the use of Lillian in the opening with Marion: questions of this is really Marion's job and if she really has it "under control" - no decision was made to change
-topic of the student having too many lines in the beginning was brought up. the concern was that he would be detected. Suggestions were made to take the student out until he gets to Hand scan. just so he isn’t revealed by or going after her right away. No decision was made, but Anne suggested this could be discovered during rehearsal this finding of normal...either take him down or have her improvise it up (with other people in the audience)
-Questions were brought up about the faculty member's “who cares”- this is a reference by writers to people (artists/practitioners with studios in the building) having to always respond in a certain way to people interested in touring the building....of having to play to the “purpose” of the building when there is no purpose in general. If the lines need to be overt and direct....directors can fudge that up.
-directors can play with when Marion introduces Ford (so that audience knows who these men are)....so the conversation makes sense
-how to position Marion w/in the historical scene? Maybe we blur the line of actor of Ford and character of Ford?
-cite the poem in the program notes (adapted from the text) -Julie
-Student should say the name of the show “Kenilworth Unlocked” instead of Kenilworth tour. p.16
-after ring tone incident - will the student say something like “I’ll sell you your notes?”
-what ring tone do we want to use? something that is revealing and surprising about the character
-directors- mention was made to the line "for a reason" (I can't remember the page....it's when Marion can't cross the line)....if you need/see fit to add some “for a reason” lines earlier - to do so.
-Sara will send the documents she used to write the descending scene in the elevator to Julie for the program notes.
-Program Notes on the Blog about the Tour. -cite these there. Tour blog being the program notes. This is something that Ryan and Julie will need to get going on composing.
Friday, March 20, 2009
Saturday, March 7, 2009
Notes from 3.6.09
Here is a recap of items discussed, ideas brought forward, decisions made, and tasks at hand:
Transition out of Chaos and down to the basement and then out of the basement:
Thoughts from Sara: wants to use sanctions and the eyewash lab.
-double doors to get audience out?
-think of something when the elevator is coming to get people to take them down
-what to do with that down time
What can we do to underscore the meaning of the moment when there is chaos:
-will there be someone on the elevator with a gunshot wound?
-will we split people up half go down the stairs or half in the elevator. Sound
uses with this?
-cautions: if we split up, how will we keep the through line of the student. Will
he assign power to someone in the second group?
-vignettes on the way down?
What is happening during this passage from Happy Days to Basement Story:
-security and control isn’t all bad, now we want it, or are we calling it out?
-Will the student comment on “where is authority when you need it?”
-Mood shift is happening.....it’s going to a place that the play hasn’t gone before
thematically and structurally
-Mood of the vignettes might be different now then when we saw them before.
-Is there a way that we can parallel the journey downstairs and the story in the
basement. Yes!
The fantastical "descent" in the elevator/stairs by the student live in elevator and
taped audio playing in the stairwell on the way down - audience is lead by old
woman using no words.
-our discussion:
Is there an existing piece of art that the student can speak or say or go off on in
the elevator. Orpheus descending - or even intercuting of other descending pieces.
As classical text is interwoven, small bits of text from the story will also go in,
and be repeated, so when it is introduced in the basement, audiences will have
prior context from when they heard it in the elevator/stairwell.
Themes brought out: Freedom, rebirth.
How do the two groups see the student differently or the same now?
Will the happy days characters be going downstairs?
Question: We’re transforming the student, we should also figure out how we want the
audience to transform and what we want them to do. Do they become a part of the
play?
Recap:
The student starts as doubting, into it but rude, then buys in during happy, takes
on the responsibility, and then merges with the fantasy.
Marion starts out in control, sustains it, can’t sustain it, breaks down,
how do we see her now? She comes down the other stairwell, maybe she comes through
the story and released by the shackles? Do we need to see her again? Yes.
Questions for the writers about the script so far: Magdeline references the boat, as
is now seems confusing. Sara doesn't mind if the script changes to meet the needs
of directing
Ending:
-anything is possible in this space
-Image: someone moving big pieces in and out of the loading dock. Maybe the
audience sees them while Marion preps for another show. Re-visitation theme.
is key
-maybe a guitar playing happening at the top of the stairs and then they disappear.
-Is she drenched? She has been put out? Baptism? Has she gotten a new pet in a pet
carrier.
-How does Marion leave the story? Ascention of Marion in the elevator or in the
stairs with dog carrier in hand. Barking sounds from the cage.
-as the ascent ends, Marion leaves from the lobby where a group of guitar students
play, the student knows them and begins to chat. Audience is given the opportunity
now to exercise their decision making skills, will they leave right away? How long
will it take them to leave?
-do the audience members have id’s that they will have to give it back?
-Is Marion going to have a specific reason to leave?
Blog:
-doing a blog or something that interacts with the audience before the show?
building a mystery?
Poem talk:
-ideas about this from anne: After work- used to layer william and father together
before/during the names.
Production support: nothing.
Ryan: will look into Maier audio recordings of him in interviews and see if there
are transcriptions available.
People expressed a need for a Production list. Where, who, and when this will post
is unknown.
Transition out of Chaos and down to the basement and then out of the basement:
Thoughts from Sara: wants to use sanctions and the eyewash lab.
-double doors to get audience out?
-think of something when the elevator is coming to get people to take them down
-what to do with that down time
What can we do to underscore the meaning of the moment when there is chaos:
-will there be someone on the elevator with a gunshot wound?
-will we split people up half go down the stairs or half in the elevator. Sound
uses with this?
-cautions: if we split up, how will we keep the through line of the student. Will
he assign power to someone in the second group?
-vignettes on the way down?
What is happening during this passage from Happy Days to Basement Story:
-security and control isn’t all bad, now we want it, or are we calling it out?
-Will the student comment on “where is authority when you need it?”
-Mood shift is happening.....it’s going to a place that the play hasn’t gone before
thematically and structurally
-Mood of the vignettes might be different now then when we saw them before.
-Is there a way that we can parallel the journey downstairs and the story in the
basement. Yes!
The fantastical "descent" in the elevator/stairs by the student live in elevator and
taped audio playing in the stairwell on the way down - audience is lead by old
woman using no words.
-our discussion:
Is there an existing piece of art that the student can speak or say or go off on in
the elevator. Orpheus descending - or even intercuting of other descending pieces.
As classical text is interwoven, small bits of text from the story will also go in,
and be repeated, so when it is introduced in the basement, audiences will have
prior context from when they heard it in the elevator/stairwell.
Themes brought out: Freedom, rebirth.
How do the two groups see the student differently or the same now?
Will the happy days characters be going downstairs?
Question: We’re transforming the student, we should also figure out how we want the
audience to transform and what we want them to do. Do they become a part of the
play?
Recap:
The student starts as doubting, into it but rude, then buys in during happy, takes
on the responsibility, and then merges with the fantasy.
Marion starts out in control, sustains it, can’t sustain it, breaks down,
how do we see her now? She comes down the other stairwell, maybe she comes through
the story and released by the shackles? Do we need to see her again? Yes.
Questions for the writers about the script so far: Magdeline references the boat, as
is now seems confusing. Sara doesn't mind if the script changes to meet the needs
of directing
Ending:
-anything is possible in this space
-Image: someone moving big pieces in and out of the loading dock. Maybe the
audience sees them while Marion preps for another show. Re-visitation theme.
is key
-maybe a guitar playing happening at the top of the stairs and then they disappear.
-Is she drenched? She has been put out? Baptism? Has she gotten a new pet in a pet
carrier.
-How does Marion leave the story? Ascention of Marion in the elevator or in the
stairs with dog carrier in hand. Barking sounds from the cage.
-as the ascent ends, Marion leaves from the lobby where a group of guitar students
play, the student knows them and begins to chat. Audience is given the opportunity
now to exercise their decision making skills, will they leave right away? How long
will it take them to leave?
-do the audience members have id’s that they will have to give it back?
-Is Marion going to have a specific reason to leave?
Blog:
-doing a blog or something that interacts with the audience before the show?
building a mystery?
Poem talk:
-ideas about this from anne: After work- used to layer william and father together
before/during the names.
Production support: nothing.
Ryan: will look into Maier audio recordings of him in interviews and see if there
are transcriptions available.
People expressed a need for a Production list. Where, who, and when this will post
is unknown.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
And the Winner is...
Kenilworth Unlocked
we gotta go to press tomorrow a.m. to get it in the calendar of events!
Thanks all for chiming in...
Thanks to Ashley for looking out for the PR component!
we gotta go to press tomorrow a.m. to get it in the calendar of events!
Thanks all for chiming in...
Thanks to Ashley for looking out for the PR component!
Monday, March 2, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Names through Happy Days section
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...
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...
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.
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