Greetings from Baltimore, where I’m spending the weekend celebrating my mom’s 70th birthday, and hopefully getting this post finished and uploaded as well as fixing some of the past posts.
That’s So Jacob Presents: Flip the Script Friday
Episode #49: Mat Smart, The Royal Society of Antarctica
The Basics
The Royal Society of Antarctica premiered on 26 February 2015 at The Gift Theatre in Chicago.
Characters
Dee – Female janitor, mid-20s.
UT Tom – Utility Technician, mid-40s.
UT Tim – Lead janitor, mid-30s.
Tamara – Dining attendant, mid-20s.
Pam – Fuel technician, mid-40s.
Ace – FEMC worker, over 30.
Miller – Naval Academy midshipman, 21.
Jake – Biology grad student, mid-20s.
Setting/Plot
McMurdo Station, Antarctica. Delijah, also known as Dee, goes to Antarctica in order to find answers about the death of her mother, Shannon, whose body has never been found.
My Thoughts
Initially, it reminded me a lot of a better version of play on which I once worked at the Baltimore Playwrights Festival. There is a lot in the script about corporate culture and the “Big Brother” mentality, and a ton of buzzwords: green brain, Biscuits and Honey Butter, and of course, “The Ice.” It also shows interesting interaction between people you’d never expect, like janitors and dining attendants. What’s really cool though (no pun intended) is that it takes place in Antarctica, which is one of the only places on Earth that has no native culture and to which no single national entity has a claim. Just like Dee is berated for trying to save some snow in the first scene, being admonished that it “belongs to everyone,”…yet it belongs to no one at the same time. Dee is noted as being one of the 11 people to have ever been born in Antarctica, so if anyone would have any claim, it would be her.
How I’d Flip It
The play’s notes indicate that the lighting never changes since it is light 24/7 in the time of year during which the play takes place. Also, many of the characters are bundled up in winter gear, including sunglasses or goggles. Perhaps the audience would receive those as well, if the scenery is that brightly white.
What if…bear with me here folks…the show was done in a white box instead of a black box theatre? By white box, I mean just paint everything white. walls, chairs, tables, so it looks like everything is snow and ice. And maybe even make the room cold.
Body Politic premiered on 21 May 2016 at Buddies in Bad Time Theatre in Toronto, Canada. It closed on 12 June 2016, hours after the shooting at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
Characters
Phillip – gay man in his 60s. Member of the Body Politic collective in his youth.
Deb – young lesbian activist in her 20s. Member of the Body Politic collective.
Steven – gay man in his 20s. Original member of the Body Politic collective who leaves quickly.
Calvin – gay man in his early 20s. Member of the collective.
Victor – gay man in his late 20s. Member of the collective, latecomer who joins with Brian. Played by the same actor who plays Steven.
Brian – gay man in his late 20s. Member of the collective, latecomer who joins with Victor.
Josh – gay man in his 20s. A barista at the Starbucks where Phillip goes every day, in the present-day storyline.
Setting/Plot
Present day and 1970s, Toronto, Canada. There are two simultaneous storylines. In the present day, Josh goes over to Phillip’s apartment after encountering him on the Grindr app, where they have sex and argue about the differences between gay men in their respective generations before a revelation by Josh. In the 1970s storyline, Phillip, Deb, and the others start a gay-themed newspaper entitled Body Politic, and in their attempts to express their views, they encounter resistance from within and without, leading up to a major raid on Toronto bathhouses and a demonstration which changes everything, including the breakup of Body Politic and the relationships between its former members and allies.
Really disliking these blocks on WordPress. They just make everything so clunky and hard to edit. I found time this week to read at least part of a script. It was quite interesting, especially since its playwright didn’t live to see its completion.
That’s So Jacob Presents: Flip the Script Friday
Episode #45: Lorraine Hansberry, Les Blancs
Image Credit: Amazon.com
The Basics
Les Blancs premiered on 15 November 2007 at Broadway’s Longacre Theatre. It was produced by Konrad Matthaei. The final text was finished from Hansberry’s notes by Robert Nemiroff. Notable actors in the premiere production included James Earl Jones as Tshembe and Earle Hyman as Abioseh.
Characters
Dr. Marta Gotterling – young doctor, white, of Scandinavian origin
Peter – young African servant
Charlie Morris – young reporter from America
Dr. Willy DeKoven – older doctor, from the Netherlands
Major George Rice – older man, American, major in the US Army
Madame Neilsen – elderly woman of Scandinavian origin, wife of the unseen Reverend Neilsen
Eric – young African man who works at the compound
Tshembe Matoseh – brother of Eric who has just returned from studying in Europe and America
Abioseh Matoseh – brother of Eric and Tshembe who is more traditional.
Ngago
Other minor characters including Drummers, The Woman, African Child, Soldier, Prisoner, African villagers.
Setting/Plot
“Yesterday/today/tomorrow – but not very long after that.” A mission compound and a tribal hut in an unnamed African country. An extensive opening sequence leads us to the compound, where reporter Charlie Morris arrives just as Dr. Marta Gotterling is finishing with a patient. Charlie then meets the rest of the staff and residents of the compound – DeKoven, Rice, and Madame Neilsen, as well as Eric, a servant. Upon hearing drumming, DeKoven and Rice bring up terrorism, but Madame Neilsen determines that it is just ritual funerary drumming. We learn this to be true, as the father of the Matoseh brothers – Eric, Tshembe (recently returned from a trip around the world where he has become a Christian) and Abioseh (who is more into traditional tribal beliefs). Despite a curfew, Tshembe shows up at the compound to check in with Madame Neilsen and the rest, only to be admonished and castigated publicly by Rice for not observing the curfew. This is followed by a conversation between Charlie and Tshembe, each trying to figure out the real story of the other.
Major Themes
Out of Sight, Out of Mind?
I know that the description was
borderline confusing, but the play was borderline confusing. A lot of key
details are only referred to and not seen onstage. This includes Kevin being
beat up by Merv and his gang and the wedding of Jamie and Krista. I suppose
this adds to the element of mystery and is due to the fact that we can’t
include literally everything that happens to these characters onstage, but I
felt like the details pertaining to who exactly Merv is (other than, as they
refer to him once or twice “Merv the perv”) and what his deal is with Jamie and
Kevin, why they’re enemies. We also don’t see too much of Chicky’s backstory.
She’s a badass who has dealt with a lot, from unwanted advances from basically
every male except Jamie, which includes her father, Clarence, and Kevin, who
may or may not be related to her, as we find out. Instead, we hear a lot about
it, and at times it feels like Chicky’s giving us a lot more than we are
seeing, and we have to just hope that she is reliable in what she is saying. The
scene between her and Clarence attests to the fact that she is probably telling
the truth, but it’s almost as if she reveals too much information as there’s
not as much visual context.
Waiting For…
This brings me to my next point, which
is the obvious presence of absent characters. Some are ostensibly absent, like
Travis, who is dead, and Chicky’s mother, who has abandoned the family. However,
we also don’t see Earl, the boss, or the infamous Merv. Most notably, we hear a
lot about a certain character who never shows up but clearly has quite an
impact on one of the onstage characters; Reg, an older, married man, who employs
Robby and has been involved with Chicky ever since her early teens, almost as
young as Lissa. Chicky is so headstrong, and despite teasing Jamie, is his
mother figure, and is protective of the younger and more vulnerable characters,
showing sisterhood to Krista (even when she is being a bridezilla), civility
and attention to Robby, and being a safety guard for the young and
impressionable Lissa. Chicky can be a smart-aleck but she seems to know more
than anyone else, and is the most down-to-earth and practical…yet her dreams
and aspirations are viewed as a joke by everyone else. This is exacerbated at
the not one, but two scenes where she is waiting for Reg, who of course,
does not show up. Her fatal flaw is that she is attracted to a man who, despite
what he says about his marriage, is not going to leave his wife and be with her.
Unlike all the other characters, she does not know that waiting for him is
useless because he will never show up.
I Guess This is Growing Up
My final major theme is that of
growing up, or lack thereof. It’s obvious that Chicky has been thrust into the
role of parent, basically raising her younger half-brother Jamie, and that
Krista, who dreams of being Jamie’s wife, is more into playing at being an
adult than actually being one, leaving Jamie somewhere in between. With his desire
to clone Travis and somehow eliminate the future “new Travis’s” brain tumor,
Clarence is holding on to a memory and acting like the very child he lost and
is obsessed with. Lissa, the youngest character in the play, is entranced by
adulthood in two ways: by Krista, only three years older than her but already a
bride, and by Kevin, who makes romantic advances on her. Even though Kevin
stops before he does anything immoral or regretful, getting up off of Lissa and
sending her home before they do anything, Lissa is smitten with him, which she
shows in the monologue section of the photo session scene, with her monologue
that is basically all of her thoughts about sex. When Jamie and Chicky piece
together what Clarence has been doing, they confront him, telling him to grow
up and act like the father he should be, and on the flip side, Chicky emphasizes
to Kevin that Lissa is still a child, and even though she and Reg have had a
physical relationship since her early teens, that Lissa, being “slow,” is way
more vulnerable than she was, and warns him not to engage with her, at the risk
of giving her signals she does not understand which could lead Lissa to a
dangerous place.
My Thoughts
As much as parts of it confused me –
for instance, the scene where Jamie and Kevin are putting on dresses and makeup
for a stag party, and the sexual aspects of Merv and his “gang” – I kept
reading just to see how this gritty Gothic tale would turn out. I kept thinking
of a combination of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Naomi Wallace’s The
Trestle at Pope Lick Creek; the former, because of a main character living
in his own world, contemplating moving across the country, and the chopping
down of trees, and the latter, with the country aesthetics and father/son
relationships, as well as the railroad which dominates the landscape. Also, my
current read is John Green’s Looking for Alaska, and though I’m only
about a quarter of the way through, I am picturing the gang in that book as
similar to the unseen Merv and his gang.
How I’d Flip It
Much like the cover of the book, I’m
seeing some sort of tree design, maybe with moveable flats in front of a backdrop
that looks like the sun in the sky, but is really the eye of an eagle, symbolizing
both endangerment of the environment, and the eagle Jamie nurses back to health
and releases into the wild. A lot of what I saw in various production photos
included wood or faux-wood logs and stumps as furniture. I’m not sure I would
make it super “campfire” but I would definitely accent everything in wood.
For costumes/appearance, I’m
thinking a lot of earth tones in sepia and tan, and navy blue. Much of the
colors are described by Banks in the text, but one thing I would definitely avoid
would be camo; just too stereotypical. I picture Clarence and possibly Jamie in
plaid; Chicky in typical “woodsy girl” attire with a t-shirt and jeans; and Krista
in some kind of short-sleeve baseball tee with cutoffs. For Kevin, I picture a
lot of solid navy blue, and for Robby, a slightly more formal outfit in forest
green. Lissa is harder to pin down; in various production photos, she was in a
dress and pigtails, but I see her in something a little less frilly, like denim
overalls and a pink short, with glasses. The women’s hairstyles are really
clear in my mind. I see Chicky with a bleached blond, sculptured buzz cut;
Krista in long brown curls, with an updo for the wedding scene; and Lissa with
a short bob, almost making a mullet at her ears.
For the wedding scene, obviously
the men’s outfits and Krista’s wedding dress are what they are. However, I would
see a change for the other two women. The playwright indicates that their
dresses are fuchsia, but I would incorporate a different style for each. For
Lissa, I would give her more of a little girl look, with a flouncy skirt and a
little jacket, as if she is playing dress up, and for Chicky, I see her in an
uncharacteristically feminine outfit that is an extreme contrast to her normal
attire, with a sweetheart neckline and a structured bodice, but a length that
is short enough for her to rock some black biker-y boots. Something to accentuate
the fact that even though she is rough, she isn’t one of the guys and is
feminine in more than a motherly way.
And finally, as I was reading, the
song “Gives You Hell” by All-American Rejects was reverberating in my head, possibly
for a video teaser or to appear somewhere in the production.
I decided to go back to the library, to the same shelf where I found Bone Cage, to see what other treasures it had in store for me. And a treasure I found, in the form of the fantastic fantasy Inuk by Henry Beissel
That’s So Jacob Presents: Flip the Script Friday
Episode #41: Henry Beissel, Inuk
Image Credit: Amazon.com
The Basics
Inuk premiered on 1 August 1973 at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival in Stratford, Ontario, Canada. It has also been translated into French, for a six-year run in France by the Compagnie Morisse. According to the author’s preface, the script has also been translated into Bengali, Chinese, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Polish, and Spanish.
Characters
Single Characters
Inuk, a young hunter.
Father
Mother
Raven, who acts as a narrator.
Polar Bear
Arctic Fox
Sea Monster
Spirit of the Caribou
Spirit of the Moon (Male)
Spirit of the Wind (Male)
Spirit of the Dream (Female)
Sedna, Goddess of the Sea
Spirit of the Ice (Male)
Spirit of the Sun (Female)
Group Characters (Choruses)
Dog Team
Musk Oxen
Seals
Sharks
Inuit Villagers
*Note: In the original production, all characters aside from Sedna, the six Spirits, and the group of Inuit Villagers were performed by marionettes.
Setting/Plot
Mythical Inuit Village. It is winter in Inuk’s village, and he and his mother and father are starving. On a hunt, Inuk’s father is killed by a polar bear, giving Inuk the impetus to embark on a quest to find the Spirit of the Sun and bring her back to his village. His quest, tempered by the feuding spirits of the Wind and the Moon, the tricky goddess Sedna, an initially misunderstood Sea Monster, and helped by a silly group of seals, leads him to the Great Hall of the Iceberg, whereupon he meets the spirits of the Ice and the Sun, as well as that of his deceased father. Overall, Inuk learns a lesson about the cycles of the planet and of life.
Major Themes
Men are the Moon, Women are the Sun?
Not so much of a theme, I guess, but an observation, that characters typically seen as female, such as Moon and Wind, are male, and the Sun is female. This interesting subversion is thought-provoking, adding to the mystery of the elements as well as giving them different dimensions. It is also a reminder that this story comes from the indigenous people and, being non-Western, has its own unique backdrop in many ways, including gender roles.
What About the Children?
The back cover quotes Doug Bale of The Free Press, stating “[t]he tale is an admirable blend of fairy tale and poetry that appeals equally to adults and children.” I could easily see this being a children’s play, but one that adults would definitely pay attention to, with the occasional “slightly older” joke in the mix. However, in terms of the main character, Inuk, he is constantly referring to himself as a man, a hunter, while the other characters see him as a boy up until the end. This shows children that even though you may think you are all grown up, you still have some more growing up to do, as do we all. At the end, it is stated that Inuk and the Spirit of the Sun will be “married, but for a short time only,” which makes me feel like Inuk, although not totally grown up, has progressed to a place where he can get married, traditionally a grown-up activity.
Happily Ever After? Not So Fast
This is literally how the play ends, with Sedna, Goddess of the Sea, telling Inuk that he won’t be able to stay married to the Spirit of the Sun forever, and just like everything in life, she will have to return to the Great Hall of the Iceberg every year. Although she is also there at the end, along with Inuk, Sedna’s marriage to the Moon is also in limbo, as the moon and the sea go through changes and phases, just like Inuk and the Sun will. And furthermore, Inuk’s father stays dead, rather than coming back to life. What I like about this is that it shows children a clear message about the life cycle without being disappointing (Inuk’s father leaves him with a message that he is proud of his son, and that he should take care of his mother in his place), but also sparks children’s imagination with further discussion about Inuk, the Sun, Sedna, and the Moon, warranted by their metaphorical marriages, without any scientific information being offered.
My Thoughts
I am so glad I picked Inuk off the shelf. It was an unusual but fun ride, and I do think that it would definitely be a hit with both children and adults. I really like the creativity that it presents – in performance, design, and dramaturgy – and the suggestions that masks or puppets be used as the production sees fit, the more the merrier. Beissel notes that even though it was a mix of marionettes and human actors in the Stratford production, it can be either all puppets or all humans, masks or no masks, and it would still be fine. I like that philosophy; it makes it easier to work with, especially for a low-budget group like a school. I think it could be a pretty killer school play, in fact, rather than the normal, played-out children’s shows like Cinderella and Jack and the Beanstalk and Little Red Riding Hood, and all the rest.
How I’d Flip It
Much like the cover of the book, I’m
seeing some sort of tree design, maybe with moveable flats in front of a backdrop
that looks like the sun in the sky, but is really the eye of an eagle, symbolizing
both endangerment of the environment, and the eagle Jamie nurses back to health
and releases into the wild. A lot of what I saw in various production photos
included wood or faux-wood logs and stumps as furniture. I’m not sure I would
make it super “campfire” but I would definitely accent everything in wood.
For costumes/appearance, I’m
thinking a lot of earth tones in sepia and tan, and navy blue. Much of the
colors are described by Banks in the text, but one thing I would definitely avoid
would be camo; just too stereotypical. I picture Clarence and possibly Jamie in
plaid; Chicky in typical “woodsy girl” attire with a t-shirt and jeans; and Krista
in some kind of short-sleeve baseball tee with cutoffs. For Kevin, I picture a
lot of solid navy blue, and for Robby, a slightly more formal outfit in forest
green. Lissa is harder to pin down; in various production photos, she was in a
dress and pigtails, but I see her in something a little less frilly, like denim
overalls and a pink short, with glasses. The women’s hairstyles are really
clear in my mind. I see Chicky with a bleached blond, sculptured buzz cut;
Krista in long brown curls, with an updo for the wedding scene; and Lissa with
a short bob, almost making a mullet at her ears.
For the wedding scene, obviously
the men’s outfits and Krista’s wedding dress are what they are. However, I would
see a change for the other two women. The playwright indicates that their
dresses are fuchsia, but I would incorporate a different style for each. For
Lissa, I would give her more of a little girl look, with a flouncy skirt and a
little jacket, as if she is playing dress up, and for Chicky, I see her in an
uncharacteristically feminine outfit that is an extreme contrast to her normal
attire, with a sweetheart neckline and a structured bodice, but a length that
is short enough for her to rock some black biker-y boots. Something to accentuate
the fact that even though she is rough, she isn’t one of the guys and is
feminine in more than a motherly way.
And finally, as I was reading, the
song “Gives You Hell” by All-American Rejects was reverberating in my head, possibly
for a video teaser or to appear somewhere in the production.
So, let me preface this by saying that, yes, last week’s Flip the Script, as well as a few others, are empty/unfinished. Partially due to running out of time on Friday nights, partially due to trying to deal with this awful new WordPress interface, and partially due to being just plain tired. But I actually really love making these, no matter if anyone else reads them or not. Hopefully, they’ll be useful at some point, and until then, it’ll just be a chronicle of plays I’ve read, enjoyed, and had thoughts about.
Earlier today, I went through my entire blog – yes, all six years of it, as of last week, happy blogiversary to me – and looked for every single Flip the Script post. I deleted a few which I wasn’t happy with, or which I was never going to get back to, and made an official count of how many I’ve done so far. The grand total is 39, with all but 12 finished, or at least in a state I’m happy with. At some point – hopefully soon – I’ll fix up the remaining twelve, and make some kind of directory listing the entire series so far. But right now, I just spent about an hour relaxing in bed and reading a play I plucked off the shelves of the library, and though it took a while to get into, it ended up being a very interesting elegy that is definitely worth sharing. It comes from eastern Canada, right here to That’s So Jacob, in…
That’s So Jacob Presents: Flip the Script Friday
Episode #40: Catherine Banks, Bone Cage
Image Credit: Amazon.com
The Basics
Bone Cage premiered on 10 October 2007 at Neptune Studio in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It was produced by Forerunner Playwrights Co-op and Ship’s Company Theatre.
Characters
Jamie – 22 years old, a tree processor in the logging industry
Chicky – 25 years old, Jamie’s half-sister through their mother. Works in the sod fields.
Krista – 17 years old, Jamie’s fiancee. A high school student.
Kevin – 18 years old, Krista’s brother. Works as a chainsaw wielder in the logging industry.
Clarence – 52 years old, Jamie’s father. Retired and on disability.
Robby – 30 years old, considered “slow.” Employed by Reg, Chicky’s lover, who is an unseen character.
Lissa – 14 years old, Robby’s sister. Also considered “slow.”
Setting/Plot
No time indicated (probably present
day), in a small town in rural Nova Scotia. Jamie, an introspective,
nature-loving young man in the logging industry, finds out from his friend
Kevin that their boss intends to move his to a lesser position as a chainsaw
operator, a position which will have him killing more trees. He dreams of
becoming a pilot and possibly moving to British Columbia to train in the heli-logging
industry. Meanwhile, his young fiancée Krista is planning their upcoming wedding
and looking forward to becoming an adult despite still being a teenage high
school senior. In a second plot, Clarence is still mourning the loss of his son,
Travis, half-brother to Jamie and Chicky, while Chicky attempts to take care of
things at home, fend off her father’s advances, and deter him from sending Travis’s
remains to some “cloning lab” in Scotland. When it is discovered that Travis’s
grave has been disturbed, Jamie and Kevin take a break from wedding preparing
in order to get back at enemy Merv “the perv” and his gang. After a family
photo session where many secrets are revealed, and an offstage “incident” at
Jamie and Krista’s wedding, we are left with Jamie confronting his relationships
with the past (Clarence and Travis), the future (Krista), and the present (his
job and the environment) at the railroad trestle, a spot which has drawn him in
since the play’s beginning, where we first meet him.
Major Themes
Out of Sight, Out of Mind?
I know that the description was
borderline confusing, but the play was borderline confusing. A lot of key
details are only referred to and not seen onstage. This includes Kevin being
beat up by Merv and his gang and the wedding of Jamie and Krista. I suppose
this adds to the element of mystery and is due to the fact that we can’t
include literally everything that happens to these characters onstage, but I
felt like the details pertaining to who exactly Merv is (other than, as they
refer to him once or twice “Merv the perv”) and what his deal is with Jamie and
Kevin, why they’re enemies. We also don’t see too much of Chicky’s backstory.
She’s a badass who has dealt with a lot, from unwanted advances from basically
every male except Jamie, which includes her father, Clarence, and Kevin, who
may or may not be related to her, as we find out. Instead, we hear a lot about
it, and at times it feels like Chicky’s giving us a lot more than we are
seeing, and we have to just hope that she is reliable in what she is saying. The
scene between her and Clarence attests to the fact that she is probably telling
the truth, but it’s almost as if she reveals too much information as there’s
not as much visual context.
Waiting For…
This brings me to my next point, which
is the obvious presence of absent characters. Some are ostensibly absent, like
Travis, who is dead, and Chicky’s mother, who has abandoned the family. However,
we also don’t see Earl, the boss, or the infamous Merv. Most notably, we hear a
lot about a certain character who never shows up but clearly has quite an
impact on one of the onstage characters; Reg, an older, married man, who employs
Robby and has been involved with Chicky ever since her early teens, almost as
young as Lissa. Chicky is so headstrong, and despite teasing Jamie, is his
mother figure, and is protective of the younger and more vulnerable characters,
showing sisterhood to Krista (even when she is being a bridezilla), civility
and attention to Robby, and being a safety guard for the young and
impressionable Lissa. Chicky can be a smart-aleck but she seems to know more
than anyone else, and is the most down-to-earth and practical…yet her dreams
and aspirations are viewed as a joke by everyone else. This is exacerbated at
the not one, but two scenes where she is waiting for Reg, who of course,
does not show up. Her fatal flaw is that she is attracted to a man who, despite
what he says about his marriage, is not going to leave his wife and be with her.
Unlike all the other characters, she does not know that waiting for him is
useless because he will never show up.
I Guess This is Growing Up
My final major theme is that of
growing up, or lack thereof. It’s obvious that Chicky has been thrust into the
role of parent, basically raising her younger half-brother Jamie, and that
Krista, who dreams of being Jamie’s wife, is more into playing at being an
adult than actually being one, leaving Jamie somewhere in between. With his desire
to clone Travis and somehow eliminate the future “new Travis’s” brain tumor,
Clarence is holding on to a memory and acting like the very child he lost and
is obsessed with. Lissa, the youngest character in the play, is entranced by
adulthood in two ways: by Krista, only three years older than her but already a
bride, and by Kevin, who makes romantic advances on her. Even though Kevin
stops before he does anything immoral or regretful, getting up off of Lissa and
sending her home before they do anything, Lissa is smitten with him, which she
shows in the monologue section of the photo session scene, with her monologue
that is basically all of her thoughts about sex. When Jamie and Chicky piece
together what Clarence has been doing, they confront him, telling him to grow
up and act like the father he should be, and on the flip side, Chicky emphasizes
to Kevin that Lissa is still a child, and even though she and Reg have had a
physical relationship since her early teens, that Lissa, being “slow,” is way
more vulnerable than she was, and warns him not to engage with her, at the risk
of giving her signals she does not understand which could lead Lissa to a
dangerous place.
My Thoughts
As much as parts of it confused me –
for instance, the scene where Jamie and Kevin are putting on dresses and makeup
for a stag party, and the sexual aspects of Merv and his “gang” – I kept
reading just to see how this gritty Gothic tale would turn out. I kept thinking
of a combination of Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard and Naomi Wallace’s The
Trestle at Pope Lick Creek; the former, because of a main character living
in his own world, contemplating moving across the country, and the chopping
down of trees, and the latter, with the country aesthetics and father/son
relationships, as well as the railroad which dominates the landscape. Also, my
current read is John Green’s Looking for Alaska, and though I’m only
about a quarter of the way through, I am picturing the gang in that book as
similar to the unseen Merv and his gang.
How I’d Flip It
Much like the cover of the book, I’m
seeing some sort of tree design, maybe with moveable flats in front of a backdrop
that looks like the sun in the sky, but is really the eye of an eagle, symbolizing
both endangerment of the environment, and the eagle Jamie nurses back to health
and releases into the wild. A lot of what I saw in various production photos
included wood or faux-wood logs and stumps as furniture. I’m not sure I would
make it super “campfire” but I would definitely accent everything in wood.
For costumes/appearance, I’m
thinking a lot of earth tones in sepia and tan, and navy blue. Much of the
colors are described by Banks in the text, but one thing I would definitely avoid
would be camo; just too stereotypical. I picture Clarence and possibly Jamie in
plaid; Chicky in typical “woodsy girl” attire with a t-shirt and jeans; and Krista
in some kind of short-sleeve baseball tee with cutoffs. For Kevin, I picture a
lot of solid navy blue, and for Robby, a slightly more formal outfit in forest
green. Lissa is harder to pin down; in various production photos, she was in a
dress and pigtails, but I see her in something a little less frilly, like denim
overalls and a pink short, with glasses. The women’s hairstyles are really
clear in my mind. I see Chicky with a bleached blond, sculptured buzz cut;
Krista in long brown curls, with an updo for the wedding scene; and Lissa with
a short bob, almost making a mullet at her ears.
For the wedding scene, obviously
the men’s outfits and Krista’s wedding dress are what they are. However, I would
see a change for the other two women. The playwright indicates that their
dresses are fuchsia, but I would incorporate a different style for each. For
Lissa, I would give her more of a little girl look, with a flouncy skirt and a
little jacket, as if she is playing dress up, and for Chicky, I see her in an
uncharacteristically feminine outfit that is an extreme contrast to her normal
attire, with a sweetheart neckline and a structured bodice, but a length that
is short enough for her to rock some black biker-y boots. Something to accentuate
the fact that even though she is rough, she isn’t one of the guys and is
feminine in more than a motherly way.
And finally, as I was reading, the
song “Gives You Hell” by All-American Rejects was reverberating in my head, possibly
for a video teaser or to appear somewhere in the production.
This semester is officially in the
books, as I proctored my students’ final on Wednesday, finished all the grading
on Thursday, and submitted the grades today, so hopefully I can get back to
writing and blogging some more.
I realized that I’ve had Black Lives, Black Words out from the library since last summer/fall or something, and haven’t gotten a chance to finish it, so here’s to wrapping up reading it and highlighting some of the interesting pieces in another edition of Flip the Script Friday.
In This Bitter Earth by
Harrison David Rivers, two young men – Neil, white, and Jesse, black – are
at a protest in memory of Trayvon Martin. Neither intended to be there, but
they ended up there anyway. Neil ends up with a megaphone in his hand, and
thrust atop a platform, so he does the first thing he can thing of, which is to
recite a poem by black poet Essex Hemphill. At first, Jesse is offended, but as
they say the words in a combination of call-and-response, alternating lines,
and together, there is a strange, uneasy moment that may or may not be peace,
before the sound of protestors are heard. I think that this would be interesting
on some sort of moving platforms – up and down, to reflect the power dynamic between
white male voices and black male voices in society. Think cherry pickers or something.
That would be something worth staging and seeing.
This is a play that I thought I had read, but it turns out that I hadn’t, and it’s now public domain so I can do what I want, bwahahaha.
Before I finish writing this post, I just have to say that I’m really not loving this new block editor. I used to be able to toggle back to the old style, but now I can’t. I’m hoping to avoid either writing posts in Word or Google Doc and then copying and pasting them, but one of the reasons I’ve been avoiding blogging is because this editor just plain sucks. How do you manage to get around this problem?
It’s the second Friday of the year, and even though I’ve been pretty slack on Flip the Script Friday in the past, I’m committed to getting up more of these, and completing some older ones that still remain incomplete. Or getting rid of them entirely.
Maybe I should just start a Flip the Script blog. That’s a blog no one will read.
Anyway, because I am a selfish human, but a selfish human who recognizes the excellence of a good script, here’s my take onVietgone, a play with music by the ever-talented Qui Nguyen.
Image Credit: Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, royalmtc.ca
Basics
Vietgone premiered on 4 October 2015 at South Coast Repertory in Costa Mesa, California, USA.
Characters
Quang Nguyen – Handsome young Vietnamese pilot for the American army during the Vietnam War, 20s.
Tong Thi Tran – Sexy and strong-willed Vietnamese refugee, 20s.
Huong – Tong’s outspoken, critical, but flirtatious mother, 60s.
Nhan– Quang’s best friend. Boisterous but also sometimes more cautious, 20s.
Bobby– American soldier, white, 20s.
American Girl, American Guy, Asian Girl, Asian Guy, Captain Chambers, Flower Girl, Giai, Hippie Dude, Khue, Ninjas, Playwright, Protestors, Redneck Biker, Thu, Translator – Minor characters, played alternately by the actors who play Huong, Nhan, and Bobby.
Setting/Plot
1975, across America, but mostly in Fort Chaffee, Arkansas, with a few scenes in Vietnam. After a brief, presentational introduction by “the playwright”(he’ll be important later), two parallel plots occur. First, Quang and Nhan are driving on a motorcycle across America from Arkansas to California, with hopes of reuniting Quang with his wife and kids left behind in Vietnam (“Blow ‘Em Up”). Meanwhile, Tong and her mother Huong escape Vietnam, ending up in Fort Chaffee, where Tong plans to start over (“Gonna Start Again”). As Tong realizes how America’s not all that it seems, and Quang is forced to leave Vietnam for the USA, their distaste for their situations grow (“I’ll Make It Home”). Flashing back to the road trip to California, again, Quang finds solace in the drugs of the times (“Mary Jane”) before arriving home, where he squares off against his new acquaintance Tong as Act I ends. Act II rewinds to the scene where Quang and Nhan are doing drugs with a hippie couple, whose comments cause Quang to suddenly reexamine his own situation (“Lost a Brother”), and then we fast-forward again to where we left Quang and Tong at the end of Act I. We see Quang and Tong’s relationship “develop,” as it were, with a few more flashbacks to Quang’s trip and Tong’s life in Vietnam, and then we see the plots meet up: Quang tells Tong of his plans to drive a motorcycle across the country to California, to catch a plane back to Vietnam, and Tong tells Quang her plans to leave Fort Chaffee and move in with a foster family, and they part (“I Don’t Give A Shit”). Back in California, Quang realizes the mistake he’s making, so he returns to Fort Chaffee for Tong. In the final scene, we fast forward again, to the present, where an older Quang is being interviewed by his son, “the playwright.” A few gaps in the story are filled in, and then (presumably), the telling of Quang’s story begins…
Major Themes
My Prerogative
This play is all about perspective. From scene to scene, we never really know if what we’re seeing is accurate, and who’s telling the story – Quang, Tong, or the playwright. You sort of wonder where this is all going – the jumps in location, the forwards and backwards of time, the minor characters, the singing – but each scene adds a piece to the puzzle which is life for Vietnamese refugees in America during and after the war, and their identities (and those of their children, as we see with the playwright). I think that this theme of what’s real and what’s not really reflects the Vietnam War to a T; Americans weren’t hearing the real story when it was happening, and decades later, the children/grandchildren of refugees get one account of the war from their families who lived through it, and another version from an American-made history textbook in school.
What We Have Here…Is A Failure To Communicate
Going off the last theme of the nebulousness of the historiography of the Vietnam War, the lapses and irregularities in communication are also key to understanding the gestalt of Vietgone.No Vietnamese is spoken in the play – only English – but the way that Nguyen chooses to have the characters express themselves is worth mentioning. From the very beginning, Nguyen tells the audience outright that the way to discern which characters are Vietnamese and which characters are American is that the Americans will be the ones speaking broken, stilted English (“Yee-haw! Git ‘er done! Cheeseburger, waffle fries, cholesterol!”). This draws on stereotype, but not in the way you might expect it to; rather, this reversal allows the audience to imagine the perspective (see above) of the Vietnamese characters who tell this story. Even Bobby, the American soldier, only speaks grammarlessly (“Town good food. Bring you can I.”) illustrating the lack of attention paid by the Americans to the very people they are supposed to be helping. The song breaks are very interesting; even though they’re inconsistent, they’re very telling of the characters’ inner thoughts. Which is what they’re designed to do, but it comes out in rap, which you wouldn’t expect from a play that mostly takes place in the disco and country-western era. My favorites are Tong’s “Gonna Start Again,” which really packs a punch and shows the gathers-no-moss, takes-no-prisoners attitude of the character, and Quang’s “Lost a Brother” which shows a vulnerability to this buff, tough guy dragging his friend around the country on a motorcycle. It’s not a traditional use of music in a play, but then again, nothing about this play is traditional.
A Sign of the Times
Usually, I stick with two major themes, but I wanted to discuss a third: time. After seeing this play and reading the script several times through, it took me some time to wrap my head around the timeline of events. For some people, this would be a major headache, but for me, it helped me make discoveries about the characters, and why they acted in the ways that they did – why Quang seemed to be living in his own world one minute and down on the ground in the next, and why Tong was so jaded and angry at the world. This definitely makes it a play that’s better when performed than just read, which is what it’s meant for, obviously, but I think that if I saw it again now, I would notice some very different things than I did the first time around.
My Thoughts
I saw Vietgone last year in Minneapolis, with a good friend of mine in the role of Quang (he did really excellent work, by the way) and loved the whole experience. The theatre chose surtitles for the location changes (smart move) and had amazing sound/lighting effects. But as far as the script goes, despite the blurriness of the timeline, and the confusing minor characters, it’s fun, it’s fresh, it’s meaningful, and it’s just so different from what’s out there today. I wish that I could see this play again, somewhere, sometime, because it really deserves to be seen and analyzed by more people. This would be a really fun script for a round table read-and-study session. I feel like it would be hard to use this play in something like an intro curriculum, but it would fit into something on theatre from multi-ethnic American voices, which is a syllabus that I now have to create.
How I’d Flip It
The production I saw was pretty fantastic, and as I read the script, all I could imagine was what I saw on stage in Minneapolis. A traditional proscenium arrangement would still probably be the only way I could see it happening; I feel like a thrust stage would make it too pageant-y, and in the round, it would feel too claustrophobic. This is also a play which requires an all-Asian cast, without question. One thing I would love to see would be a brick wall as a backdrop, rather than the black scrim that the theatre in Minneapolis utilized. I don’t know why I feel this way, especially since this play isn’t urban at all. Maybe, actually, what I’m imagining, is something in the way of – fortifications or something. Something to reflect both the physical war in Vietnam, and the continuation of the war in cultural terms, between races and between generations (Tong/Huong, Quang/Playwright). The production I saw did not use much camo, if any, and I feel like those are the colors that I see, maybe with some red and yellow for the flag of Vietnam, but nothing too disco/flashy.
Last Friday I was on my way to Minneapolis for APO Region Rally (the very last one), followed by a quick weekend jaunt to Baltimore for a wedding, but I’ve been reading some plays recently, so I wanted to get back in the groove of Flip the Script Friday. Here comes the first of 2 Qui Nguyen plays I’ve read recently, the fantastic fantasy that is She Kills Monsters.
October has been a more difficult month for me than I thought. One of the most difficult months of my life, in fact. I won’t go into any more details, but I will share with you one way I dealt with it.
Last night, I was awake at 2 AM. Still fully dressed, still fully stressed, and I just wanted to scream at the world.
Then, I thought to myself…where have I heard that phrase before? And then I realized…
It’s from a monologue in Anna Deavere Smith’s Fires in the Mirror.
So, I immediately tore up my apartment looking for my copy, and eventually found the monologue I was looking for in an anthology.
And there I was, whatever-past-two in the morning, sitting on the floor of my living room, leaning against my couch, loudly reciting a monologue called “The Coup” as loudly as I could. It got me out of my head for a bit, and I actually enjoyed myself. I followed it up by pulling my copy of bash off the shelf and reading iphigenia in orem, then rounded out the night by sitting on my bed and reading a humorous monologue out loud.
Then I went back to reality.
It was an unusual attempt at self-care, but not an unwelcome one. I would recommend.
That’s So Jacob 