1)On the issue of casting 50 brides and 50 grooms I would have to choose to go the non-traditional way and cast only the brides that are in the eighty percent of the show. Having a budget of 500 dollars make everything very difficult, especially if you tried to cast 100 people and expect to clothe them in wedding attire. I find that it would be very difficult to stage all these people as well, so I would choose to cast the three main brides and grooms and possibly a couple extra brides and grooms for the final scene. The stage space and budget just wouldn’t work with casting 50 brides and 50 grooms.
2)"The three women represent their sisters, the other 47 of whom are presumably wandering town or sequestered on the ship that has brought them from Greece."- Suzanne Weiss
http://www.curtainup.com/biglove.html
"The broad, constant movement works best in two different sections of the play, where three of the sisters (we never actually see all 50 onstage at the same time – and it's a good thing, because finding a stage where they all fit would be difficult)"- The Austin Chronicle
http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/review?oid=oid%3A594640
3) "You Don't Own Me", sing fifty sisters who flee their arranged marriage. In this battle of the sexes (a modern re-making of Aeschylus' early Greek tragedy The Suppliants) one couple is able to work through complicated constructions of gender to find big love -- but not before plates are smashed, tomatoes are squished, pop songs are sung, and several men lie dead on the floor."
http://www.swarthmore.edu/x18871.xml
Question #2: Nudity & Language
1) Tackling the issue of nudity and language in my opinion probably changes from person to person. In my opinion full – frontal nudity is not necessarily needed for the scene when the bride steps into the bath, I would just leave her in a bra and underwear. For the male nudity I feel like as long as you don’t reveal the frontal region it is appropriate as long as the script calls for it. Personally, being that the showcase theatre is such a small space, I would never think full frontal nudity would feel comfortable to the audience. If anything I would find it distracting and kind of shocking, maybe its just because I have never experienced this, but I am sure most audiences haven’t either. The language for me, as long as it calls for it, is appropriate and should not be altered, unless its beyond blaspehemy.
2) "Ashley Rhodes as Lydia doesn't dump the dress, but otherwise the action unrolls as Mee envisioned..."-TSU
http://austinlivetheatre.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=660:big-love-by-charles-mee-texas-state-university-october-6-11&catid=307:texas-state-university&Itemid=126
3)"Although beautiful passionate Lydia (Dana Dewes) is the essence of sensuality, opening the show by stripping off her wedding gown and plunging nude into an onstage bathtub."- Laura Hitchcock
http://www.curtainup.com/biglovela.html
Question # 3: Wet, Sticky, Bloody & Destroyed
1)In the case of actor's being "wet, sticky, bloody, or destroyed" , I will have to tackle each obstacle seperately. For the time when Lydia takes a bath I would have either a towel or a bathrobe available for her to directly get into after the event. I would also try and use a bath rug that she could step into so that the floor avoids getting wet as well. Another way would be to use as minimal water in the tub so that its not masses of water that are being dealt with. For the sticky issue I would use some sort of barrier on the floor that could be easily rolled up or cleaned. If you are using dried blood such as stains on clothing I have seen some recipes for blood that are easily washed out. For the smashing of the china I have seen "sugar" glass bottles used for things like this. I would either try and make some that looked similar to china or try and buy some. Using the "sugar" glass would also prevent injuries even it bits were missed when trying to clean.
2) "The cast, mostly brides and grooms still splattered with blood and wedding cake, take their bows ..."-C.S.B. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/theatre_journal/v054/54.1burriss.html
http://www.stu.ca/~hunt/reviews/biglove.htm
Question #4- Helicopter
1)For the issue of the helicopter coming in with grooms, instead of trying to rig up something in showcase that could literally fly them in I would choose to use lighting effects to show this. I would see if we could find a way either by strobe light effect or some other effect with lighting to have this happen. I would also try and use some loud sound effects to show that the helicopter is arriving. As far as staging, i would have the actors that are on stage use their body movement to show that big gust of winds from the helicopter are hitting them. Being that it is in the showcase I think it would be cool to have the grooms coming out from different voms after the landing. Without using a wind effect or blowing of any sort the costumes should be fine. This way it would not cost a fortune to build something.
2)"A helicopter is heard and the grooms materialize in sporty white jumpsuits..."-David E. www.raggedblade.com/reviews/000272
3)"... grooms, as (American) men distressingly do, chase their chattel down with guns and helicopters as Jack Bauer might pursue domestic terrorists."-J. Moore http://www.denverpost.com/ci_13765582?source=rss
Question #5- Wedding Massacre
1) I think for the wedding massacre to be pulled off both neatly and effectively it would have to be done with caution. I think it is important for the audience to see how each bride kills their husband. But the directions that include the wedding cake being smashed into each others faces could be excluded due to cost and messiness. Also the absolute crazy scenarios of what each could be doing could be exchanged with something less crazy.
2)"Before the nuptials are concluded we get a food fight, an orgy and bloody murder."- S. Weiss http://www.culturevulture.net/Theater/BigLove.htm
3)"After their wedding dance is over, Lydia and Nikos are left on a darkened stage, awkward and uncertain."- S.J. http://www.didaskalia.net/reviews/2002_06_17_01.html
No comments:
Post a Comment