YAY!

OK so I'm here with Brian and we're ready! lets go right angles! this shit looks so good, i can see it coming alive on stage with the music and the costumes!

k.shaw

Music

Angus & I met this afternoon and talked about music. We were on the same page about this music shoul contain a childlike quality. As the director I can't help think of this concept as this play, this story, is taking place inside a child's mind. So Angus found some music of a band that makes childrens music, but plays it as if it's for adults.

I found music that turns rock music in to lullaby's for baby's. Pretty haunting stuff. We also looked at other music that was made for video games, and horror film soundtracks. Tomorrow I will bring the disc I made tonight and hope that you all like it. I kinda scored it to what's happening in the story.

We talked alot about the story and what characters, what's happening, what's the feeling. We often asked, "What's happening, now?" We've got a theme for the White Witch, and some nice builds for the battle scene.

We're going to have a great proposal. I'm excited to see what we can dream up for our Live Design.

Stage Design Project- Costumes (Kira)

this is the email i got from Kira. Mainly posting for Jules to include on the Power Point. Hopefully Kira can post something... and ill call you tonight so we can concertize...

most of the characters are animals, so i dont kno what i want to do with those. as far as the children, i want them in pajamas, white pajamas and the older girls in slips.

the white white is going to be in white horse motif. in a white pin up outift with a white chess piece horse life hairdo. living on top of the shoe she embraces evil and the aminals.

there will be a clear twnties, fifties, sixties, eighties characters.
i sent you some pictures, i was thinking maybe a celebritiy vibe, for the inspiration for clothes.

do we wanna dress the animals like that? or switch the animals to people? make it super abstract? what do you think? email or call me

kira

And her pictures:

Stage Design Project- Concept (Continued)

Conceptual Influences:
Shakespeare Santa Cruz's
Shakes To Go: Midsummer Nights Drean

Defamiliarization
-using sheets to create fairy wings for Titania

-feather boa becomes Lion's mane


Kate Edmund's Design for Shakespeare Santa Cruz's Holiday Show
The Wind in the Willows
their whole concept=very similar
The entire show takes place in an attic; everything created from everyday objects
Example: Bed frame becomes jail cell


White Witch Concept:
Staircase for palace/grand entrance:
Staircase- Stiletto shoe


Statues of Frozen People- Chess Pieces, Art pieces (statues or paintings)
Beaver House- Basket

Path/Stepping Stones- Puzzle Pieces

To Be Continued...

Stage Design Project- Concept

Play: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Here's what sort of inspired the concept:
Monologue from Tony Kushner's Angels in America: Millennium Approaches
Harper is hallucinating. Prior is dreaming. The two meet.
Harper:
I don't understand this. If I didn't ever see you before and I don't think I did then I don't think you should be here, in this hallucination, because in my experience the mind, which is where hallucinations come from, shouldn't be able to make up anything that wasn't there to start with, that didn't enter it from experience, from the real world. Imagination can't create anything new, can it? It only recycles bits and pieces from the world and reassembles them into visions... Am I making sense right now?
Key words: recycle, reassemble

Basic Plot of Lion, Witch, Wardrobe
Kids get sent to a boring home in the country for the summer.
Find Narnia, a mystical land through a wardrobe.

Our take:
The kids are still in the house (they can't physically enter a mystical world through a wardrobe).
Narnia is imaginary.
The imagination (Angels in America) cannot create.
Everything in Narnia is in the house.
Random objects in the house serve as inspiration for their imagination.

Concept
A defamiliarization of everyday objects.
The kids are able to use objects they find in the house as something new.

Think: its almost as if the kids are playing with action figures of themselves. While still in the physical world of the house, these action figures can be inserted into a fantasy world. Because of their size, a household pet (for instance) would become a monster to an action figure.



Important!
Nothing in the imaginary world could be just labeled as fantastical. Everything needs an explanation and a real parallel.

This served as the leaping point for our concept and we thought about what everyday objects could be transformed into something new and different.

Initial Sketch:

Key Locations/Elements:
Inspiration and Trasformation

Forest- Forks, Silverware, Coat Hangers/Hat racks, Brooms(?)




Lamp Post- Candle Stick, Desk Lamp




To Be Continued...

Stage Design Project- Pictures

As you know... we are going... TOMORROW. So hopefully everyone is ready for that.
Here's the pictures documenting how we made our model.

The Raw Materials

Stage Beginnings:

Ramp Inserted:

Lamp Post and mock coat hangers Made:

Nate bending the wire coat hangers:

Tea Cup, Lamp Post, Beaver Damn inserted:

Decorations (Puzzle Piece Path and Chess piece Statues) and Stiletto Staircase added:

Turn Table with Wardrobe constructed:

We had so much fun:

Song ideaS!

I really like the song ideas!!! HEre is my vote for a song, there is alot of meaning to it!

this is how it works

It feels a little worse
Than when we drove our hearse
Right through that screaming crowd

While laughing up a storm
Until we were just bone
Until it got so warm
That none of us could sleep

And all the Styrofoam
Began to melt away
We tried to find some words
To aid in the decay

But none of them were home
Inside their catacomb
A million ancient bees
Began to sting our knees

While we were on our knees
Praying that disease
Would leave the ones we love
And never come again

On the radio
We heard, 'November Rain'
That solo's really long
But it's a pretty song
We listened to it twice
'Case the DJ was asleep

This is how it works
You're young until you're not
You love until you don't
You try until you can't

You laugh until you cry
You cry until you laugh
And everyone must breathe
Until their dying breath

No, this is how it works
You peer inside yourself
You take the things you like
And try to love the things you took

And then you take that love you made
And stick it into some
Someone else's heart
Pumping someone else's blood

And walking arm in arm
You hope it don't get harmed
But even if it does
You'll just do it all again

And on the radio
You hear, 'November Rain'
That solo's awful long
But it's a good refrain
You listen to it twice
'Cause the DJ is asleep

On the radio, on the radio
On the radio, uh oh, on the radio, uh oh
On the radio, uh oh, on the radio

Kyle!

Stage Design

I have TONS of songs that I think would be cool to design, in particular, I think doing a Decemberist song would be cool because they mostly all tell stories. Here is one I think could be fun.

The Mariner's Revenge Song

We are two mariners
Our ships' sole survivors
In this belly of a whale

Its ribs our ceiling beams
Its guts our carpeting
I guess we have some time to kill

You may not remember me
I was a child of three
And you, a lad of eighteen

But I remember you
And I will relate to you
How our histories enweave

At the time you were
A rake and a roustabout
Spending all your money
On the whores and hounds
Oh Ohhhhh

You had a charming air
All cheap and debonair
My widowed mother found so sweet

And so she took you in
Her sheets still warm with him
Now filled with filth and foul disease

As time wore on you proved
A debt-ridden drunken mess
Leaving my mother
A poor consumptive wretch
Oh Ohhhhh

And then you disappeared
Your gambling arrears
The only thing you left behind

And then the magistrate
Reclaimed our small estate
And my poor mother lost her mind

Then one day in spring
My dear sweet mother died
But before she did
I took her hand as she, dying, cried:
Oh Ohhhhh

"Find him, bind him
Tie him to a pole and break
His fingers to splinters
Drag him to a hole until he
Wakes up naked
Clawing at the ceiling
Of his grave
*sigh*"

It took me fifteen years
To swallow all my tears
Among the urchins in the street

Until a priory
Took pity and hired me
To keep their vestry nice and neat

But never once in the employ
Of these holy men
Did I ever once turn my mind
From the thought of revenge
Oh Ohhhhh

One night I overheard
The Prior exchanging words
With a penitent whaler from the sea

The captain of his ship
Who matched you toe to tip
Was known for wanton cruelty

The following day
I shipped to sea
With a privateer

And in the whistle
Of the wind
I could almost hear...
Oh Ohhhhh

"Find him, bind him
Tie him to a pole and break
His fingers to splinters
Drag him to a hole until he
Wakes up naked
Clawing at the ceiling
Of his grave

"There is one thing I must say to you
As you sail across the sea
Always, your mother will watch over you
As you avenge this wicked deed"

[haunting, sailor-esque musical interlude lead by mandolin, accordion and tuba]

And then that fateful night
We had you in our sight
After twenty months at sea

Your starboard flank abeam
I was getting my muskets clean
When came this rumbling from beneath

The ocean shook
The sky went black
And the captain quailed

And before us grew
The angry jaws
Of a giant whale

[instrumental noise]
Oh Ohhhhhhhhhh
[screaming]
Ohhhhh
[screaming]

Don't know how I survived
The crew all was chewed alive
I must have slipped between his teeth

But, O! What providence!
What divine intelligence!
That you should survive
As well as me

It gives my heart
Great joy
To see your eyes fill with fear

So lean in close
And I will whisper
The last words you'll hear
Ohh Ohhhhh

STAGE DESIGN IDEAS!!!!

STAGE DESIGN IDEAS~

i think doing a song for the stage design would be awesome. im big fan of all types of music, some of my favorite bands include tilly and the wall, the flaming lips, bob dylan, tegan and sara, the beatles, elton john and billie holiday. ok so here are some possible lyrics and pictures that acompany them for some possible stage desin ideas!

Nights of the Living Dead by Tilly and the Wall

Well the high school kids they're all fucked up.
Touching each other, oh my god.
Yeah and forty ounces was never enough.
We want to pass out in your yard, we want to pass out.
Dressing in drag your best friend's clothes,
while boys kissed boys in hotel rooms.
Oh and just when we thought we were no longer lost
they kicked us out into the dirty streets of Atlanta.

So it's Friday night down on North Avenue,
where the gas station parking lot prostitutes
tried to fix their hair in our rearview mirrors.
You know we're just trying to get to the club and shake our asses.
A caravan of kids, some big old mess, 
on an old wooden dock, oh we're bored to death.
We've got a bottle of wine, a fresh pack of smokes.
We're going to end up screaming about some midnight garage sale.

God, put down your gun can't you see we're dead?
God, put down your hand we're not listening.

The microphone cut off so we're screaming at the top of our lungs.

We are born so fresh, a golden prize,
until you scrape that knee and quickly realize
that you're lost in a fog on your way to death.
Oh a thick black line, a thick black line.
So you better speak up, better raise that voice.
Come on, scream loud all you girls and boys.
Let's get wild, wild, wild. Let's rejoice.
C'mon, c'mon. I want to hear that fucking noise.

Oh the push and pull of everything, oh this nightmare of electricity.
We are the living dead, yeah the living dead.
That's the way it is. That's the way it's always been.
Oh that snake slithered past my house today.
Oh I heard he caught you on a dark highway.
No the clouds didn't part they just grew into a storm.
I can still hear the sound of the rolling thunder.

God, put down your gun can't you see we're dead?
God put down your hand we're not listening.
God, put down your gun can't you see we're dead?
I said, God put down your hand we're not listening.
Oh we never were.

I want to fuck it up.
I feel so alive.
And I feel.