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Rebecca Rouse Commencement Slot Proposal 4/20/02 Fefu and Her Friends By Maria Irene Fornes
-Maria Irene Fornes
Fefu and Me.Why Now.I think this kind of psychologization and objectification that I discuss in the above section are tendencies that are all too prevalent in our culture today. I recognize more and more a compulsion within myself and others toward impersonal relationships and opportunities to write people off. I notice a lack of compassion and more importantly, tolerance. Right now, and I realize this may change over the course of conversations, rehearsals, time, etc., I see tolerance as the central theme of the play. Not tolerance as assimilation, but tolerance in the true sense of the word, as acceptance and respect. Now more than ever, especially when words like 'evil' are being used so freely in our culture, I find tolerance to be an important part of my life, as well as the willingness to 'look under the stone' and confront that within myself (and in the world) which repulses me, and instead of turning away, becoming fascinated. I do not consider the play to be a feminist piece (or a surrealist piece, or think it fits into any other category-this play defies compartmentalization.) It's just a play. It's a story with female protagonists. As for men in the audience, I don't think it will be any more difficult for them to enjoy "Fefu" than it is for me to enjoy something like "Saving Private Ryan" or our familiar friend "Glengarry Glen Ross." In fact, I think it's important that both men and women come to see the play. It has helped me to learn to be more tolerant of myself and that which is outside myself. I think it also has the potential to provoke men to think in different ways about themselves and others too. The theme of tolerance is supported not only by the plot (if you can call the cyclical series of scenes a plot) but also the structure of the play. The 2nd act literally brings you into the body of the play and doesn't allow you to retreat to an external 'spectator' position. When the actors and audience are in such close proximity, when they can see each other breathe, smell and touch each other, it is much more difficult for them to objectify each other. When the possibility for objectification is removed, tolerance, understanding, and love (and fascination) become possibilities. Also, the structure itself imposes a relative truth or multiplicity of perspectives on the theater experience. The different audience groups actually see different plays because they see the Act 2 scenes in different orders. As an audience member, you realize that the 2nd act scenes are cyclical because you can hear the scenes going on in the different rooms, just like you can hear through the walls in a real house. This is a play that really has to be done to be completely understood, especially because of the nature of the 2nd act. It is definitely not a closet drama. Another reason why now: the play has finally changed me (a year later) and I finally understand it. It's a Eureka! moment and it's time to act!Why P.W.I love PW.Also, this is the best/only space on campus in which to build this set. Logistically, I don't know where else the 2nd act could be staged. But beside that, it is appropriate that it be staged at PW. The moving around to different rooms in the 2nd act was not a theoretical theater gimmick that Fornes thought up and stuck into the play. Originally, the rooms in the 2nd act were found spaces in the theater where the play was first produced. Fornes wrote the 2nd act scenes after she found these backstage spaces. Also, Fornes' original inspiration to begin writing the play was 6 dresses from the 1930s that she had collected over the years. It is, therefore, a play at home in found spaces with found objects, and what is PW other than a found space filled with found objects? Not to mention, this play is, in the best sense of the word, some weird shit! You have to grapple with it. It won't be filed away. It won't let you go. It makes you think about the mysterious and frightening things in life whether you want to or not. And it's beautiful This play does what Anne Bogart talks about in "A Director Prepares," it's the artist's responsibility to restore the mystery, fear, and trembling to the everyday. "Fefu" doesn't offer answers or solutions (and I wouldn't twist it into doing that.) It provokes. And that excites me. Working with People.First of all, a little about where these ideas come from. I've done a lot of acting here and in high school, and a little directing too. On a side note, while I love acting, I really miss directing. After having taken a kind of break from it, I feel that directing is something I am ready to do now and to some degree, need to do in order to further my growth as an artist. In high school I directed "Charlotte's Web," "A Midsommer Night's Dream," and "The Great Expectations of Gatsby," (a musical 1-Act that I also wrote and produced). Since college, I've directed "Sex, Death, and Marriage" at 3C2C freshman year, and I directed a scene from "Sexual Perversity in Chicago" in TA23 this year. Also, last summer I directed 8-15 year olds in a production of Oliver! at a musical theater intensive in Atlanta. So while I don't have a specific method in mind for directing this piece, I do have experiences I will draw on to use things that have worked for me in the past.For our first meeting, I'd like to establish an atmosphere of collaboration. I'd like to have a casual read through with the whole staff as well as the actors. After we read through the play, I'd like each designer to talk about what they have in mind for their designs and have the dramaturge talk about the period and the play. Then I'd like us all to have an open discussion of the play. I want to take notes during this discussion and get everyone a copy so we can have that discussion to refer back to as a place from which to gain access to the play and spark further discussion and discoveries. I'd also like to spend another evening with everyone watching a couple films-"La Double Vie deVeronique" directed by Kristof Kieslowski and "Enchanted April" directed by Mike Newell. Both films relate to the play in various ways and I think it would be another fun and interesting way to gain access to the script as well as establish a collaborative atmosphere. If the actors are in favor, I'd like us to develop a warm-up type ritual to begin every rehearsal. I'd like it if each actor would contribute something to that ritual. From then on, I think there are two basic things to work on. The words and the movement. Part of the movement work includes the blocking, of course. I want the blocking to include stillness and silence. I'm not interested in superfluous movement or extra "stage movement" meant to indicate what "real" people act like. The characters in "Fefu" just behave-they don't analyze the behavior. I don't think there is a need to ground or "motivate" every change of emotion in this play. Sometimes, just like in real life, our emotions do change suddenly. (For example, Fefu in the garden scene in act 2 when she tells Emma that she is deeply unhappy.) I see the play as a series of essential cyclical moments, not necessarily climaxing or building an arc. As for the words, I'd suggest to the actors that they keep a journal for the duration of the play. I'd ask them to write out their lines without punctuation in the journal and take a look at the specific vocabulary that their character has and think about what that means. I'd suggest using the journal as a place to write down any thoughts about the play at all, and also as a place to write down directors notes. I'd also like to do a writing exercise that Fornes does with her students. It's a freewriting exercise, during which Fornes reads from a random book. First everyone takes a moment to stretch or run around the room or do some yogic exercises to ready themselves for writing. Then Fornes picks random sentences from the random book and reads them out loud at intervals. The idea is to include these "quotes" in your piece of freewriting. After an hour of writing, each person reads to the group what they wrote, then they all go home-there is no discussion. What I hope to get out of this exercise is a pool of collective ideas that just be there-that we don't have to analyze. I think it would also further the atmosphere of collaboration and help build the actors as an ensemble. I would also offer to meet with any actors or any designers or staff at any point in the process just to chat or talk about specific questions. As far as a loose rehearsal schedule goes, I'd like to meet with designers for the beginning of the 1st week and hold auditions during the 2nd half of the 1st week. During the 2nd week we'd do the read through, movie nite, writing and movement exercises and begin to block. Blocking would be finished by the 4th week and we'd hopefully have some runs under our belt before tech. (other than just design runs, of course.) Then in the fifth week we'd tech and perform! As for working with designers, I can't begin to express how thrilled I am about the prospect of working with such wonderfully talented and intelligent people! I am excited to meet with all of them and learn from them and incorporate what they want to bring to the project. In that first week, before auditions, I'd like to meet with each designer and develop a game plan. From then on, we'll be seeing each other at weekly production meetings, design runs, and whenever we need to talk. Although I have a vision of my own for the play, because it is a play about multiple perspectives, I think it will be important to try to embrace all the designers readings of the piece, as long as it doesn't become sloppy and cluttered, or confusing without reason. Designing Fefu.Meeting with Nick, Jillian, and Adam has been fucking incredible. Nick and I came up with a minimalist set that becomes more expressionistic as the play progresses. The idea is, the first act set is the most realistic: a comfortable living room with chairs and a table but no walls. (Walls suggested by the frames of French doors and lighting.) A Frieda Kahlo painting, "The Little Deer" hung in the space between the doors. For the second act, space behind the living room is the garden and the kitchen. Stairs lead from there up to the shop, which has been converted to Julia's bedroom. The Hot room is the study. The third act brings the audience back to the living room set. But the set changes. During the moment when Fefu sees Julia walk, the French doors fall back. The Kahlo painting flies up. A huge reproduction of "The Little Deer" rolls down from the grid. The set explodes just like the play does. Just when Fefu and Julia actually see each other for the first time, just when we actually see these women for the first time, just when we actually see the Kahlo painting for the first time, the play explodes. As far as costumes, Jillian suggested period costumes as a way of grounding the play. I'm also interested in somehow integrating those 6 dresses that originally inspired Fornes to write the play. Maybe as part of the set?Take A Moment.The moment the audience enters Julia's bedroom is a powerful one. In this scene, we become Julia's tormentors (literally; she wouldn't do the scene if we weren't there, and figuratively; she speaks to a presence in the room and we're the only ones there.) Now: imagine the moment. From the downstairs space, you walk up to another level, up to the shop window. You push through the grate. You're in another world. Blue gels on clip-lights and candles. Julia, in a white hospital gown, sits on a mattress on the floor surrounded by dry leaves and sawdust. A gauzy material is hung from the ceiling around her mattress. Her wheelchair stands next to the mattress. In the background, the shadowy forms of power tools and wood. We stand around Julia, like doctors around a patient. The shop evokes both a nightmarish operating theater but also the woods where Julia and the deer fell. Julia begins to speak to us, but not as a 'mad person' is often portrayed. Instead, she is 'still and luminous,' more like a visionary or a seer than an idiot. What she says is revolting, but we're fascinated, because it's real, immediate, and honest.A Vision."Fefu" is a terrifyingly beautiful piece of theater. It is a breathtaking exploration of the simultaneity of the radically disparate. The language of the play communicates this with its fascinating rhythm of heartbreak and humor. Emotional complexity is communicated through ruthless simplicity. In this way, the play is able to both confront the audience with extreme discomfort, and at the same time urgently invite the audience in. This play is about tolerance. It's about how we expand among each other. It's about women, not as mothers/wives/daughters, but as female beings, trying to find space-with each other, in the world, within themselves. It's about the secrets you frantically withhold even as you try desperately to reveal yourself. The play is not about traditional self-recognition of one character, but a collective and mutual acknowledgement of women by other women, as individuals and members of a group. "Fefu" isn't there for you to like it or see yourself in it. It's there for you to respect it. It seeks neither to coddle you, nor to injure you.This play excites me so much I can barely sit in my desk chair as I type this proposal. It is so important that "Fefu and Her Friends" be performed and experienced. Not only is it wonderfully challenging, thematically and logistically, but it is outside the cannon of dramatic literature. If PW wants to take a risk and stretch itself, this play will do it. It draws people in. It is a play by a female playwright of color. How often do we see plays like this performed on campus? Anywhere? It is risky theater. The People. Production Managers: Alex Aixala and Mac Vaughey Dramaturge: Mara Cerezo Stage Managers: Cristina Bonuso and Nicole Fischler and Alicia Wolcott? And? Assistant Stage Managers: Matt Biagini and ? Set Designer: Nick Risteen Light Designer: Adam Griska Sound Designer: Sam Kusnetz Master Electrician: Garland McQuinn Technical Director: Adam Immerwahr and Cari Cymanski Costume Designer: Jillian Waid Props Master: Mac Vaughey and Leslie Nunez The Budget. Rights=$70 Set=$300 Costumes=$100 Props=$20 Publicity=$60 Gun= $300 Total=$850
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