Hello everyone.
I jst finished getting through opening our venue for the festival, a process that took somewhere between 80 and 100 hours in the last 5 days. But things are calming down, so I will be in frequent contact from here on out. I will have time for a large post (and progress) every thrid day starting today, nothing every third day starting tomorrow, and a modest amount every third day starting in two days. so yes.
I was going to start with props, but that seems to be a moot point at this point, but I think I will still put up the images I found, along with a small musing or ramble next to each to help me get centered and focused for the rest of the post. So here goes:
Old newspapers for Willie. I've seen some great newspapers here in Edinburgh that come in a semi aged color. Much more convincing than anything I've seen in the US and spares us the hassel of trying to age it manually. One in particular called World News.
The gun. I see it as a sort of dainty thing, with a pearl handle perhaps. This is maybe a bit too old fashioned, but the feel is mostly right.
The medicine bottle. Old-fashioned. I see it as red, not sure why.
The hand mirror a simple silver mirror.
A boater hat.
I see the spectacles as old round-rimmed brass or copper glasses. The case can be a simple leather or cloth pouch.
I would love the forst of these hats for Winnie, but more likely a simple pillbox hat would be better. Color to be determined.
The parasol is an interesting conundrum(sp?). The fact that it busrts into flame makes it so. Thinking how to do that brought me to flash paper, which in turn brought paper parasols. On th first read of the description the of the parasol, I read "beak" literally, as in a bird's, and the idea amused me once I realized what was really meant.
Music boxes are exactly that.
The shopping bag is a simple cloth shoping bag. THe toothbrush I see as a wooden handled toothbrush. toothpaste should be mostly spent. Willie's hankerchief I see as red and white checkered. Nailfile, magnifying glass,and postcards are rather self-explanatory.
So, costumes. The big question that I am trying to resolve for costumes is whther or not they are complete outfits, or miss-matched jumbles of clothing (this goes as well for Winnie's accessories). I'm not sure. I want winnie to pop a bit, so I'm thinking a blue, yellow. or perhaps red. In terms of Willie's hair, I'm torn between fully shaved and bald on top; a horeshoe of hair that seems full under the boater. He should have suspenders (when wearing pants at least, if not simply attached to his boxers). Leslie, would you let me and the cast know what exactly is necessary for them to take as measurements? Thanks. That's about it right now.
Set. Now that we're in the '92 I'm really tempted to make the setting essentially the broken and overgrown rubble of a theater. Pipes off of one or two points from the hemp house (simulated of course), old lights strewn here an there (we have the axials, zooms, and there were a bunch of kliegles(sp?) in the CFA), some of which may work..., pieces of older sets or simply wood sticking out of a more conventional mouning of dirt and sawdust and sandbag sand (I'm trying to replace about 10 of them anyways with Second Stage money, so we could possibly use the ones to be thrown out), perhaps there is a tattered and stained pysch in the back, through which the back wall can be seen. That sort of thing. Other possible ideas are things more in line with the script; laying sod, in varying stages for different amounts of gree/brown. Or newspapers, sand, dirt, etc.
Some visual research:
Lights. I'm thinking that it will be fairly stark, almost simple lights. The question I have here is whether or not the light is directed (eg is it moring noon or night direction) or unidirectional. Also, the most important thing will, i think, be the backdrop. It will need to convey the feeling of expansive emptiness that is necesarry for the show.
That;s about it right now I think.
