Dawn's Reading Blog

The Pillowman is a sick, twisted script about sick, twisted people. It should be brilliant.

This is a script we’re planning to do next year and I’ve been asked to design the lights. They’ll have to be some sick, twisted lights. I’m thinking very stark and high contrast–pure light or dark. I’ll need to work with the director to get him to block actors in and out of the lights at the appropriate times. It’d be much easier to do on film than live but we’ll see what we can achieve.

This isn’t a fun show, people. No laughs, no let up.

Update: Unfortunately, we lost the rights to this show, so we won’t be doing it after all. Perhaps I’ll get another chance someday.

The only word that can possibly describe The Goat is: bizarre. I can’t wait to see how this goes over. It’s a lively script and shouldn’t be hard to watch, except that it’s over-the-top weird. It’s also got a long stretch of unrelieved turmoil. That can be tough–people screaming for half an hour straight.

I’m designing the lights for this show. The lights will be very easy because it’s an indoor unit set with no special effects. All I’ve got to do is make sure you can see the actors while they talk about goat loving. Actually, I’m cleaning that up. They really talk about goat fucking.

Since I’m part of design process, I ought to understand what’s meant by this script in which a man loves a goat (I don’t think I’m giving away much of a surprise here–the fact comes out pretty early), but I don’t. Probably the son’s being homosexual is no coincidence. Not to say that I think having a father who loves goats would turn you into a homosexual, only that I’m guessing Albee is making some kind of point here. About the love that dare not speak it’s name. Or something.

I’ve got a lot of faith in this director. We’ll see.

The Lion in Winter is a play I’m thinking about directing. It’s a very witty script, very sharp and cruel. It would require good actors with good diction and a facility for remembering lines, as there seem to be a lot of them and a lot that are nearly repeats of each other. Similar lines can be difficult for actors because you can easily find yourself having either skipped a section or gone backwards in a loop.

The basic story is from history – a king and queen (Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine) fighting over which of their sons will inherit the kingdom. To complicate things, Henry happens to be sleeping with the girl meant to marry the future king. The overarching question is: do Henry and Eleanor love each other and did they ever? No one in the story can be believed or trusted. I expect the audience would walk out feeling dizzy.

This is a fairly popular piece for community theater but somehow I haven’t seen it, which I prefer if I’m going to direct a show.

I read Wit because I was hoping to act in it. After reading it, and enjoying it, and figuring I was just about perfect for it, I discovered that the lead role has been pre-cast in my theater’s production. I won’t even get the chance to try. Should be a powerful show.

Another script I might design lights for. Book of Days is a disjointed comedy with scenes moving through place and time. It has a catchy tone and although it initially seems formless, a story arc does start to appear by the end. I enjoyed the script but I’m not sure there’s much that lights could add to it.

The show is based on a story that originally appeared on the front page of the Weekly World News: a creature–half bat, half boy–had been discovered in a cave. The (imaginary) creature became something of a cult phenomenon and eventually Bat Boy: The Musical was born.

The book doesn’t offer much that could be called original and the music is reminiscent of older musicals–tuneful, not artsy. The authors warn us to play the show seriously. The humor is in the pathos. I’ll be designing lights for this show in January. Should be fun.

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Music

Respect for Acting is an interesting look into just how seriously some people take acting. I suppose if you’re going to make your living at it, you should take it that seriously, but as an amateur who acts every couple of years because they need someone who looks good in her underwear, most of Uta Hagen’s recommendations are serious overkill. Still, they seem like good recommendations and I have a feeling I’ll be using some of them the next time I’m on stage half naked. If you’re a “real” actor, see if you can find a copy of this. It’s old but I’m guessing it still works.

I’m designing the lights for a production of Love! Valour! Compassion! by Terrence McNally at Hole in the Wall Theater in July. This is a great script. I’ve worked on a few McNally shows before and this is definitely my favorite. There’s potential for some great lighting effects and a gorgeous stage too. I hope we do it justice.

Nothing to do with Jane Austen! This is a play by Howard Zinn about Emma Goldman, the anarcho-communist as Wikipedia describes her. I was interested to learn about Emma, who was only a vague name to me prior to reading this play, but I don’t think it’s a very good play. It tries to cover her entire life in the US (from 17 to 50) so it’s choppy and never hits any really dramatic notes. Dramas seem to work better when they stick to a very narrow time and place.

Look Homeward, Angel and Other Modern Plays includes Look Homeward, Angel by Ketti Frings, Marty by Patty Chayefsky, and All the Way Home by Tad Mosel. This was a book off my shelf so I’d read it before, not that I remember any of these plays. This time around I only read Look Homeward Angel because I’d just read the book it was based on.

When I spotted the play on my bookshelf I wondered how anyone could ever take 500 pages of nearly plotless book and create a play. Well, the answer is that you can’t. This play was neither representative of the book nor good in my opinion. What drama is in the play is created. Events are juxtoposed or characters combined, which is your only option when trying to condense so much material, but the result doesn’t ring true. The essentials of the characters, and especially of Eugene, aren’t there and the characters were what made that book.

Not that I could have done better. I think Look Homeward Angel is a book not meant to be summarized.