Design Meeting
2.26.05
11pm, Design Studio
Attendance: Lauren Spencer, Joanna Weil, Geoff Roecker, Rachel Lee, David Rosenbaum, Jen Lagasse, RaMina Mirmortazavi, Emily Fishbaine, Julianna Allen, Amanda Culp, Tyler Penfield, Glenda Kenyon, Kira Stein, Chris Hardy, Tim Ellis
Links:
http://berkeleyrep.org/HTML/AboutTheRep/pressroom_photos_BC.html
http://www.52project.org/
-Glenda: “My Mom wastes my time”
-Intro Lauren Spencer: she is our Phil Board advisor, we tell her if David is an asshole, she lives in TA30, she is our liason to the Phil Board
-The Last Introductions!
-“I’m Glenda. I’m props mistress and if you steal my props I will slay you down.”
-Tyler emailed all the designers about budget
-Rachel Rhoades will come in soon to talk about how to spend money (It’s Phil’s money, not ours)
-Everyone check the blog…and make drunk posts!
THE VISION!
-Imposition of character, Lanky and Angela are different from everyone else because they are real people with real character, they can relate to each other
-Everyone else in the world is defined by their profession
Proprietor is JUST a proprietor
Friends are JUST friends
-This solves issues of gender because they’re defined by job, not gender
-Playing with androgyny, units of production (not reproduction)
-Lanky’s fool character is just a role he plays, but it’s not all of who he is
-Lanky/Angela moment in 1.ii, everyone has to prostitute themselves in some way
GLENDA: Props more representational than realistic
Pie’s not a real pie, pastries aren’t real props
Cartoonish, ridiculous
Maybe lanky and Angela have real props
JEN: What about enormous magnifying glasses?
Larger than life props and costumes
DAVID: Iconic, impractical props. We can relate to them even if we know they’re not realistic. Which props are big? Which are small?
Would pastries be real? If so they can be ridiculously decorated
EMILY: Incidental music from Marx Brothers, Looney Tunes, etc.
Probably doesn’t want to look at music from British version
DAVID: We have an alternate translation that people can take a look at if they want to
RACHEL: Even though people are defined by their character, they’re not homogenous
THERE IS A RUN OF ACT 1 ON WEDNESDAY AT 9, PLEASE COME!
LAUREN will reserve Rocky 312 for Phil rehearsals
Everyone has been in the Shiva…except for Tyler’s crazy designers for his other show
GLENDA: needs to know about necessary vs coincidental props
Kids toys for props? Brightly colored stethescope
CHRIS: Most of the play takes place in the dream…are the dream and reality different?
In the dream everything is out to get Lanky
Does Lanky exist in contrast to the dream? Do his friends belong in dream world?
DAVID: The dream is as much a nightmare as a dream, place where he doesn’t belong
Lanky knows how to operate within the world of his dream but it is not created by him
CHRIS: Play walks the line with the absurd, details could be extreme, almost realism but something is off
JEN: Something “distorted” about perspective, things are exaggerated, accentuated, people take on characteristics of position they are put in
Pinball game: nightmare vs controlled game
DAVID: Dream logic, not totally incoherent
CHRIS: Too silly to be a nightmare
DAVID: Warping of the real to expose what’s going on
JULIANNA: Fun working with people, unconventional combat, cartoonish, clownish, combat is mostly comic relief, could be darker
CHRIS: Very Charlie Chaplin. And SOMEONE NEEDS TO GET PIED
RACHEL: The pie could be shaving cream
DAVID: What’s the trajectory of the play? How does the world of the play change?
GLENDA: Get’s weirder and weirder, starts when it turns out he’s a dog
CHRIS: Weirdness peaks at end of act 2 when magician takes him home, thinking he’s a dog
JEN: The design gets more ostentatious as the action gets more realistic, it’s a critique. The design keeps getting crazier.
TIM: It spirals into more and more ridiculous. The senator scene is least textually ridiculous but the world is completely inverted. The senator is just Mr. Peanut. Lanky impersonates him before he meets him.
GLENDA: Little things are ridiculous, like the mayor offering his pajamas
DAVID: Clear connection to the real world
CHRIS: Reality, when Lanky wakes up, really isn’t different from dream. The action of the dream could have happened in the real world
KIRA: 2-D set, stuff made out of cardboard
When Angela is digging through stuff maybe she reveals 3-D stuff
CHRIS: If Lanky and Angela exist in opposition to this world, how does Angela’s space manifest itself
RACHEL: Look at pictures of Brundibar!
JEN: The mayor will have a baldric that says “Mayor!”
DAVID: Lanky needs money to exist. He doesn’t rise above anything, works within it. How do Lanky and Angela relate to the world of the play.
CHRIS: He can do things that other people can’t, turn clerks into paper processing machine, side steps obstacles
DAVID: How do we see the different spaces
CHRIS: Immediacy of Place: Here
Local references, Babycakes, picture of Fran
-Pastry Shop: Immediacy for the audience is key
What slants are we taking on these local places?
Stage directions don’t tell us much
Most realistic set
Fast transition to street
Fence serves as the reveal
DAVID: layout is important for blocking
-Angela’s House: Exists in the dream AND reality
Is it the same in dream world and in real world?
Front of the dream vs way it is in real world
-Transvestites? Jen is focusing on androgyny, treat male and female the same
Doctor is in Blondie’s night gown
Multiple removable pieces
Accessories
Raid closet for embarrassing stuff that Angela wouldn’t want us to see
-Clerk’s Office: Long, endless hallway
Brazil
Distorted perspective
Rocko’s Modern Life (Rachel can get on DVD)
Ridiculous maze of velvet ropes (made of red tape!!!)
Bureaucrazy at it’s worst
Cotton ball wigs, graduation robes
Clerk’s can become machine, don’t need extra set stuff
-Dog Pound: BEWARE OF THE MAN!
Circus concept
Dog Pound director is a pimp, Senator and Mayor are pimps too
The end of “The Lady from Shanghai” for visual research
Begins to hit a little closer to home: It’s also prison
Line of bank tellers in Mary Poppins
Boxes in clerk’s office BECOME cages in dog pound
-The Train: Scooby Doo cartoon
We need to see a lot of stuff at once
Lanky doesn’t talk, but does some sweet pants stealing
-Inauguration
Tacky red-white-and-blue
Commentary on patriotism and religion?
Lots of medal pinning, one has a picture of Fran…or Fran’s dog
-Hotel Room
Big bed, bed as symbol of luxury
George Washington’s bed…
How many forefathers can you spot in this play…?
RACHEL: Can props be reused throughout the play
GLENDA: I’m down
TYLER: visual research for props = Babiac, foam core, realistic/non-realistic props
52nd Street Project
EMILY: What wall are we going up against?
RACHEL: pants filled with pie!!!
RAMINA: I’m on it!
JEN: I take no responsibility
PRESHOW = Art of Acting Comedy, it’ll be the shit
Sound? Geoff is working as we speak and Emily’s getting in the mood
Evil clown music
Use of sound effects
EMILY: Reservoir Dogs image, badass and stupid at the same time
Eastern European
More clowny, carnival, twisted stuff
It would be great to write themes for the characters
Songs will have recorded accompaniment
Use themes from real wedding march and the like
set transitions: need to be fast
we’re gonna need run crew!
JOANNA is AMAZING
We’re not meeting again before break…use the blog
People should feel free to meet with David individually to work on specifics
David likes to work over spring break, but he’ll be in Oregon
