Some Directors apply
a conceptual metaphor to a play that helps them sort through all the good ideas
and identify which belong in this play, and why. Most directors, however, are
really just dramaturgs on a power trip or wannabe actors who think coaching is
directing. It’s true. You can say that I said so.
Don’t get me started
on sound designers. :)
CHALLENGE: DO IT IN
REVERSE.
Description: Rather
than start with the play, let’s start with the metaphor. I’ll give you one- but
pick another if you’re the type to reject a perfectly good suggestion.
METAPHOR: BREAKING A
GLASS CEILING.
Plot: Up to you! But
we know that at the end, someone gets something that was withheld- that they
deserved. So set up the imbalance in the first scene. Show us the prize, and
take it away unjustly. Have someone sit in the bosses chair and cover for his
incompetence on a call. Show a mate and the chemistry and then take them away
to a total dufus. It’s a McGuffin.
Progression
suggestions: Get that metaphor and its items infused throughout the whole play.
Characters- Start
with a clink of glasses between characters- wine, whiskey- maybe we’re at a
party.
Someone drops their
eyeglasses and everything stops.
Eyeglasses come off
Someone is hammering
or using an ice pick or a gun or something that sure as hell breaks glass--
speaking of which what are we breaking with? A diamond wedding ring? A hammer?
Should be a key object and used in the climax of the play.
A telescope or
binoculars could be involved?
Rising action-
Breaking a window- a portal? The glass table? Something breaks on stage that
has glass!
Climax- shards fall
on the stage from above. Freedom. Tragedy. You decide.
DESIGN
Set- let’s put it on
an upside down tumbler in the elevated round. How about a glass table as well.
Let’s put a pretend glass ceiling above them that can shatter and drop shards
(sand) that ping on the stage in white noise.
Sound
The play opens with
that sound when you scrub your finger on the side of a clean glass.
Later we hear the
sound of glass- ice?- microbreaking.
Then it happens
again, but with the sound of tiny shatterproof drops hitting the glass stage.
Shattering
The sound of shards
scattering on the kitchen floor
Costumes-
Someone should
shimmer. Someone should be dull. Someone should be sharp. Someone soft.
(I'm going to have so much material to play with when I re-read all these prompts later this month. Meanwhile...)
(continuing the Cymbeline
riff)
ACTOR 2 reanimates the BELARIUS puppet on his arm,
joining ACTRESS 3 with the IACHIMO puppet.
ACTOR 2 (BELARIUS, puppet) and
ACTRESS 3 (IACHIMO, puppet)
You
were as flowers, now withered; even so
These
herblets shall, which we upon you strew.
The
ground that gave them first has them again.
Their
pleasures here are past, so is their pain.
ACTRESS 3 (IACHIMO,
puppet) (cont’d)
And
so I retreat into the shadows of the castle until night falls. Then I sneak into Imogen's room and hide away
inside a trunk until she falls asleep.
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN)
Hang
on! Hang on! What kind of slipshod security do we have in
this castle?
ACTRESS 1 reanimates the QUEEN puppet on her arm,
for another brief interjection.
ACTRESS 1 (QUEEN,
puppet)
Lax
security is key to my plans to kill your father - I mean, consolidate power.
ACTRESS 1 drops her puppet arm and becomes just
IMOGEN again.
ACTOR 1 reanimates the CLOTEN puppet on his arm.
ACTOR 1 (CLOTEN, puppet)
And
without easy access to your bed chamber, how else am I going to rape - I mean,
woo - you?
ACTRESS 3 (IACHIMO,
puppet)
Get
in line, buddy. I got here first.
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN)
How
do you people get away with - ?
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN) suddenly falls deeply asleep and
begins snoring.
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
My
love is not a light sleeper.
ACTRESS 3 (IACHIMO,
puppet)
Nor
a quiet one. However, that does make it
easier for me to -
The others lean in as ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN) continues
to snore, unaware of the intruder in her bedroom.
ACTRESS 3 (IACHIMO,
puppet) (cont'd)
-
commit the details of the room to memory.
ACTOR 1 (CLOTEN,
puppet)
Wait,
what?
ACTRESS 3 (IACHIMO,
puppet)
Then
I slip the bracelet ever so gently from her wrist.
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN) continues snoring but rolls
over, ad accidentally smacks ACTRESS 3 and/or the IACHIMO puppet in the head;
then continues hanging on the puppet, as puppet and ACTRESS 3 awkwardly remove
the bracelet.
While maneuvering, IACHIMO the puppet gets an
unexpected look down the back of Imogen's nightgown.
ACTRESS 3 (IACHIMO,
puppet) (cont'd)
Well,
that's something you don't see every day.
ACTOR 1 (CLOTEN,
puppet)
What! What!
ACTRESS 3 (IACHIMO,
puppet)
Down
in the small of her back she has a birthmark that looks like a -
ACTOR 1 (CLOTEN, puppet) eagerly waits for ACTRESS
3 (IACHIMO, puppet) to complete the sentence.
ACTRESS 3 (IACHIMO,
puppet) (cont'd)
You
know what? Never mind. I shouldn't.
ACTOR 1 (CLOTEN,
puppet)
Come
on, man!
ACTRESS 3 (IACHIMO,
puppet)
Nope. Sneak your own peek some other time, my
friend. I'm storing up this information
for my next meeting with Posthumus.
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN) snores some more, flops back on
the bed, releasing ACTRESS 3 and the IACHIMO puppet to make their escape.
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
Did
someone call my name?
ACTRESS 3 (IACHIMO,
puppet)
Why
yes! It is I, Iachimo, returned to
Rome. From Britain. Where, of course, I banged your wife. Just as I'd promised.
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
I
don't believe you.
ACTRESS 3 (IACHIMO,
puppet)
Then
how would I know this about what her bed chamber looks like?
ACTRESS 3 has the IACHIMO puppet whisper in ACTRESS
2 (POSTHUMUS') ear.
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
No! I will not believe it!
ACTRESS 3 (IACHIMO,
puppet)
How
else would I have secured this bracelet?
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
No! I will not believe it!
ACTRESS 3 (IACHIMO,
puppet)
How
else would I know that in the small of her back she has a birth mark that looks
like a -
ACTRESS 3 has the IACHIMO puppet whisper in ACTRESS
2 (POSTHUMUS') ear.
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
That
faithless bitch! How could she!
ACTRESS 3 (IACHIMO,
puppet)
I
believe you owe me a ring.
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
This
filthy gift from a harlot?! Take
it! It defiles my hand to continue
wearing it!
I
am so furious I'm going to write two letters!
ACTRESS 3 (IACHIMO,
puppet)
Whoa! I'll get out of your way.
ACTOR 2 drops his puppet arm and becomes PISANIO
again.
ACTOR 2 (PISANIO)
Two
letters from my master, one of them for my lady!
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
Dear
Loyal Servant -
ACTOR 2 (PISANIO)
I
have a name, you know.
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
Yes,
of course.
What
is it again?
ACTOR 2 (PISANIO)
Pisanio.
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
Dear
Pisanio, my loyal servant.
Please
convey this other enclosed letter to my wife.
It
asks that she rendezvous with me at Milford Haven.
But
I will not be there.
She
has betrayed me.
I
want you to accompany her there, far from the safety of the palace, and then
kill her.
ACTOR 2 (PISANIO)
What?!
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN) is suddenly wide awake again.
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN)
Hang
on! Hang on! What the hell?!
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
You
have betrayed me.
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN)
No. I haven't.
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
Well,
in my defense, in the linear course of the actual plot of the original play, I
didn't know that at the time.
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN)
You
just took this guy's word for it?
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
He
knew about your bed chamber.
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN)
So
does any halfwit who took the palace tour.
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
He
knew about your birthmark. He had the
bracelet I gave you.
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN)
And
it didn't occur to you that maybe he stole the bracelet?
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
You
swore you would never take it off.
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN)
So
it never crossed your mind that he might have raped me or done me harm?
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
No.
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN)
Why?
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
There
wasn't any blood on the bracelet.
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN)
He
could have washed it off!
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
Did
he rape or otherwise harm you?
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN)
No,
but that isn't because I had sex with him!
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
I'm
in exile in Rome.
Royal
people are notoriously horny.
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN)
No,
working class people are notoriously horny.
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
Did
you believe I was cheating on you?
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN)
No,
because I love you and I trust you and if someone accused you of being
unfaithful to me I would contact you and give you a chance to defend yourself
against the charges before I hired someone to kill you!
ACTRESS 2 (POSTHUMUS)
I'm
new to this marriage stuff.
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN)
Honestly!
ACTRESS 1 reanimates the QUEEN puppet on her arm,
for another brief aside.
ACTRESS 1 (QUEEN,
puppet) (cont’d)
Men
are idiots, dear. It's why we have
poison.
To
help consolidate power.
ACTOR 1 (CLOTEN,
puppet)
Now
will you have sex with me?
ACTRESS 1 drops her puppet arm and becomes just
IMOGEN again.
ACTRESS 1 (IMOGEN)
No! What is wrong with you people?!
(to be continued)
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