Notes+(09-20-2010)


 * Producer's Meeting** (with Director's notes in Yellow)

//Peter: Not getting anything from the floor, "I understand the linoleum, but I'm not getting anything from it."// "You've got to create the space that we are intended to 'remember'" Start with just a diner (the nighthawks picture). Then work and mold that image; that structure

Katie: Building a diner and then "abandoning" it, or rearranging it is the best piece of advice I heard in this meeting. Also, it could be a classy old diner, not a gross one. And, I'm into campiness, but please let's not replicate that cheesy Nighthawks picture... at least, not so it's recognizable as such to the audience.

Sound--> Ghosts of the diner?? "Why are they doing the show in the diner?" "You've got to lead us [ the audience] in to this crummy old diner and let us understand that these actors have also stumbled upon this diner and are intending to use it as a performance space." "Why isn't just a diner?" It feels very artificial right now.

This space wasn't stumbled upon but chosen, because it's a space for which this country is nostalgic. They are not ghosts of a diner. And although I want to make the set something richer and maybe more specific, ARTIFICIAL is GOOD!

//"How does nature come into this world?" "What could be on the ground, coming down from the ceiling, out of the speakers"// //You want nature to come into this space in the most interesting way.// At the moment the speakers seem like scenery, but ask yourself what could grow out from them. //Go beyond the context of the speakers// //Magical forest//

Nature should be MOST artificial thing. It is not magical, though maybe it could be more exciting... I think it's worth it for us to continue to test out other options for the trees. Though it was shot down, I'd like us to consider a tacky painting or poster as our pine tree, perhaps attached to the back speaker tower. Or a plastic christmas tree.(I'm not joking.) I'm also open to looking into other configurations and designs for the speakers.

//Show opens and we [the audience] see this women in a flashy costume sitting in a real slice of an old diner just waiting for the show to start. She's drinking, waiting, eating sushi.//

No. No "real people" getting ready for the show.

//I'm not interested in the fans (they're a trick)// //I AM interested in a low ceiling (ceiling made of speakers maybe?)// //Low ceiling goes right over top the audience//

Of the ceiling comments the one that rings most true with me is the low ceiling idea. I'm interested in investigating practical lighting for this.

//Anne:// //Floor distressed Teal// //Speakers chrome// //What is the environment solving for you?// //There are some things that you are letting drag you into an area that you don't need to go.// //Take a group (team) field trip to some period diners//

The stage should be bolder, so there's no question that it's a section of an old diner. What this solves, is the transient nature of the settings in the play, because no scene in Lady Han takes place in a diner. On a higher level it also supports the image of Lady Han as a working woman (not a domestic woman). And most of all, it reminds the audience of an "ideal" or "protected" time in our history.

 //Brian: Be careful of your reason for putting (for instance) LadyHan into a large overdone pop outfit.//  //Be careful that the audience can still relate to her.//

I don't think Lady Han should look like she actually IS Beyonce. Though I don't want to make her a diner employee or anything I could imagine that her costume pieces (no mater how "large" and "overdone") might be made of old things, like classic fabrics and laces, maybe even objects like records or mirrors... The audience need not relate to her.