1.I have rewritten the William/Mother scene. I sent Anne and Ashley a copy and will send it all your way soon. Just waiting for and wanting some feedback. As I said today, the directors can choose how they want the father to appear or disappear. He has a longer continuing monologue to allow William time to get downstairs. He is now the one that explains more to the audience about the transition from building fords to building bombs.
2.We are trying to get more information about ford and bading so that we can add to that scene. I would like to make a few subtle tie ins/ underlying jokes about the auto industry today/ the idea that technology doesnt advance human nature. I think bading continually trying to interrupt ford would be good. Working on how to get there from the elevators.
3. before the rehearsal scene, after the phone interruptions, i worte in a shawled figure walking through the audience and into the rehearsal space. as a kind of slight yet still unsettling disruption. she has no lines.
4.in the rehearsal scene...can they want to buy an edsel? it might be a funny reference since it was supposed to be the experimental car of the future. they actually called the day it was released E-day. yikes. maybe too much though.
5. i will talk with ashley about the transition to the basement. there are black pull out dividing cables to section areas of the hallway off, we could use those to force people to go around/through them to get on the elevator. im not sure exactly how or where they are spaced though. it would add to the franticness of everything.
6. what if at the end of the folktale...when the cavern closes in on itself, the actor thats saying this line ends up in the elevator and the doors close. thenwe could do a transition back upstairs? just a thought.
lemme know your thoughts. thanks, sara
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I think the thing that worries me about the whole curtain idea, is the lack of space. We have limited the performance to 40 people right now. That means at a max, 40 people who we have to usher thru a maze in a very tight space, while at the same time telling the story. I think we can do some really amazing things with physical depiction of scenery, and interaction with audience with the narrative as several people. I am interested in using sound and bodies to produce sound during this scene as well.
ReplyDeleteI think if your are going to have the edsel, you will really need to spell it out, as it sounds like Marions name.
Everything else sounds great.
Lillian
I emailed this to Sara, but I also think there is great opportunity for a movement piece between Mother and Father that revolves around the repetitious movements of assembly-line work (making the scopes). It can be all stylized - (no props necessary), and he could fall out of it with a coughing spell. I'm looking for ways to illustrate/illuminate the story that doesn't rely on the strict narrative - and I think that might be really cool. If we do have the capacity for projection, we might be able to set their movement piece against the projection - or sound - (which can be environmental - we make it, rather than piping it it).
ReplyDeleteLillian,
ReplyDeleteLast fall we had originally chosen the name Marion Edsel as a play on the names Marion and Edsel. Marion, was an homage to Marion, the Librarian in " The Music Man". It represented the traditionally perceived representation of someone who is actually young, but is considered to be "spinsterish, bookish, introverted and reserved". It helps to give Marion basis in stereotypical behaviors which an audience would quickly recognize.
The name Edsel is "obviously" the name of Henry and Clara Jane Ford's only child, Edsel. Edsel Ford at only age 26 took over the reigns of running the Ford Motor Company. Unfortunately he was only 49 when he died from cancer in 1943. He is given credit for the "death" of the Model T, because of his desire to have new and creative, "flashier" cars than the ones of his dad. He was considered to be innovative, intelligent, and forward thinking, yet practical.
Ironically it was 15 years after Edsel Ford's death that the Ford Motor company produced the car the Edsel. The Ford family did NOT want the car called the Edsel. The car never had the word Ford on it, or associated with it, except in the minds of the people, and it's workers. Marianne Moore, a poet, who came up with the suggested name of Edsel had also suggested the names: Utopian Turtletop, Mongosse Civique and Pastleogram.
The car was considered to have a "horsecollar grille which looked like a woman's genitalia".
Just as "Coke" took a big hit with it's flop "New Coke", the Edsel line was considered to be a colossal failure for the Ford Corporation. It was started in 1955 as an experimental car. It's failure was used as a model of Saturn's becoming a successful company.
The factory workers were apparently so upset that they had to work on the Edsel that they would construct the vehicle without including all of the parts. A list of the missing parts might be taped to the steering wheel when it arrived at a dealership. The letters of E.D.S.E.L. came to represent the acronym, Every Day Something Else Leak.
Robert McNamara, left his job as President of Ford Motor Company to become the Secretary of Defense, for the United State in 1961 for President Kennedy. (This is a subtle tie in is to both the Kenilworth building was both a Ford Factory and the GM munitions Defense plant). He was the first non-Ford family member to be president of Ford Company.
I don't think this will help you to explain the "name confusion", but it might give you insight into the process by which Marion was given her name.
Sincerely yours,
Katie,