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The Skriker.By Caryl Churchill. A Proposal for PW's 1st slot. By Erica Saleh.
The Team:
The Play...Right. Ok. So. I first encountered this play last semester when Donna DiNovelli told me that I absolutely must read it. So I got the play and proceeded not to read it until about two weeks ago. (I wasn't going to admit this but I want to be honest with you). So I read the play and have proceeded to read it everyday since. As the Skriker says to Lily:"You think this is sudden. I think it's sudden. No I don't. I've been looking for you. It's going to happen... so there's no point in taking a long time getting to the point which we got to the first time no even before we met no even before I ever set eyes on you because this kind of thing is meant. Don't you agree?"The truth is (and I wasn't going to admit this either), I usually don't like plays. I have a pretty hard time feeling them. But I feel this play. I get it. The first time I read it I finished and thought, holy shit she gets me. Everything that I'm scared of is in this play; it turns out I'm not alone. But. After a few hours I realized that as much as I would love to flatter myself with the idea that Caryl Churchill and I have the same neuroses and are, therefore, soul mates, it's probably just not true. So I thought some more and realized that it's not just that everything that I'm scared of is in this play, it's that everything is in this play. It's a play about transformation and meaning and changing meaning and love and fear and insanity and interpretation and identity and changing identity. This play is not just me, it's you and your roommate and my roommate and all of our moms. It's folklore, fairytale, Shakespeare, Derrida, Djuna Barnes, Wuthering Heights, Poe, Where the Wild Things Are, Persephone, Lewis Carroll, etc. I truly believe that this is a play that allows the reader/audience/actor to get what they need to get from it, it is a play that can be about what you need it to be about. As Barthe says "a text is not a line of words releasing a single Ôtheological' meaning but a multi-dimensional space in which a variety of writings, none of them original, blend and clash." Each reader, each audience member cannot help but bring themselves into their interpretation of this play. Art allows us to disengage ourselves, to take risks, to live vicariously, this is not only free theatre, it is free therapy. But what is it about? Shit man. Didn't you listen? I said it's about everything. I'm sorry but we're going to need you to be a little more specific... Ok. For me it's about fear and anxiety. About the things you aren't "supposed" to think. It's about the fear of being alone, in the physical sense and the emotional sense. I don't know if Josie is crazy, or if Lily is crazy or if the Skriker is real. I think probably no, no, and yes. But I don't think we're supposed to know. I don't think it matters. What matters is that the play is real. That the fear and anxiety and desperation in all of these characters is real, and that the only way to alleviate these feelings is through one another. They need reassurance, they need contact. When only Lily can see the Skriker she tells Josie, "I wish you'd see her too." It's lonely to feel something alone. This play is haunting but it lets us know we're not alone. It's liberating to know that other people think fucked up thoughts too. My "Vision"/Design ConceptThis is not a fantastical play, rather, it is an exploration of multiple realities. My reality becomes your unreality becomes his reality. We wander through parks, mental hospitals, homes, the underworld, and each other's minds. Churchill uses grotesque images and folkloric tendencies in order to recreate what is real. By decontextualizing reality we can see it again.I do not want to present an alien world, I want to present an uncomfortably familiar world and hope that we can find comfort in experiencing it in public instead of in the silenced corners of our minds. In the text of this play every word anticipates and amends every other word . Josie's every action/thought/impulse affects Lily, and Lily's every impulse/thought/action affects Josie. Likewise, every thought of every individual involved in this production will affect the final product. This is necessarily a collaborative project. Together, my designers and I will recreate the worlds that Churchill has suggested. We will play with shadow and paint and imagination. I especially want to concentrate on the idea that each word that is spoken and each step that is taken leaves its mark. Nothing disappears, it haunts the space, everything previous is inside of everything present. A moment from the play:(the first moment from the play):The audience is in darkness. Sound Cue: A chorus of whispers. Overlapping. It is the opening monologue. Sometimes we can make it out, sometimes we can't. Lights up on Skriker: She sits in the middle of the stage with a paintbrush. She is painting a square around herself. When the square is complete she begins speaking. It is the opening monologue. She speaks over the sound cue. Her eyes interrogate the audience. She is searching. Skriker: Heard her boast beast a roast beef eater, daughter could spin span spick and spun the lowest form of wheat straw into gold, raw into roar, golden lion and lyonesse under the sea, dungeonesse under the castle for bad mad sad adders and takers away... (etc).She continues to speak as one by one three ensemble members join her. They emerge from under/on/in the audience. They draw her out of her square. They join her in the monologue. They take over the monologue. They take turns with the monologue. This is an insane monologue. No one should have to do it alone. The four actors work together, they move around each other and on each other. Before the end of the monologue the three ensemble exit. The sound cue ends. The Skriker has stepped back into the square, she finishes the monologue on her own. She steps outside of the square and exits. Blackout. Back to my "vision"/Design Concept Ð some specifics:The paint- The play will open with the Skriker painting a square on the stage. Throughout the play at specific (yet to be determined) moments, this square will be expanded upon. More characters will have paintbrushes and they will add their additions to the square until it has become something that does not resemble a square at all. I also love the idea of wet paint on the stage and actors walking around in it, literally leaving a mark everywhere that they go. There are obvious logistical problems with this idea that my designers and I are prepared to deal with. Plastic backstage, butcher paper, cheapass slippers.Numbers- I will use a 7 person cast: Lily, Josie, the Skriker and a 4 person ensemble who will play all of the underworld characters. Although the ensemble actors will have very few lines they will have a lot of stage time and very interesting actions and movement to work with. I would ideally like the ensemble to be a 2/2 split between men and women, and the Skriker may be played by either a man or a woman. The creatures of the underworld- There are 30 characters in the play and I believe that they are all in it for a reason. I plan on taking these reasons, and Churchill's images and, with my designers, creating an ensemble world. The titles "black dog, boggle, spriggan" are only words. What is important is their action and their meaning in the play. In a literal sense I see them as creatures from the underworld, in an abstract sense I see them as the physical manifestation of our thoughts. My fears and your passions will be dancing in a corner of the stage. A concrete example (whoa!)- I am especially intrigued by the passerby who does not "pass by" but remains on stage and never stops dancing. Not only does this prove that a name is only a name (a divorce of the signifier and signified) but it turns a beautiful image into a troubling one- Why won't the dancer stop dancing? Is (s)he trapped? Isn't (s)he tired? ... What begins as dance turns into anxiety without changing movement. This character will begin as an actor on stage, dancing. He will continue to dance through a few scenes until two ensemble members come and paint his shadow, catching his movement. When they are finished the passerby may leave, but his image will remain. Mmmm first slot. Yum.First- This is a dense play. As I stated previously, "everything is in this play." I want to give my actors, my designers, and myself the opportunity to tear this bitch apart. I want to investigate every word. Imagine every possibility. I want everyone involved to have time to play with the language the images the sounds the ideas. Basically. I want this play to live in the heads of everyone involved all summer long. (It could use a good tan).Next- I think that The Skriker would be an ideal way to open a new season at PW. This is theater for everyone, it is emotionally challenging, intellectually demanding, sensually engaging. My goal is for people to leave thinking "damn. shit was crazy" but also "yah. me too". My goal is to get those freshmen hooked on PW before they know what hit them. This play does not offer a tidy ending, instead it forces more questions, it ruminates in your head, it wakes you up in the middle of the night with new ideas, it makes you think Damn. That's what theater can do. I want to be part of that. And after that- The thing is. It's not that this is the only slot for this show. It's a really good slot for this show. It's the slot for my production of this show. It's the only slot that allows three months for actors, designers, (and me) to think and prepare. This is an especially demanding text, and bringing it to life will be emotionally and physically challenging. I really believe that this is an important play, and even though it will probably still be an important play when 2nd slot rolls around, giving actors the summer to wade through it would be incredibly beneficial. The Skriker + PW... Let's be honest- PW is an awesome home for this show. PW is a venue for new theater: for experimenting and taking chances and teaching and learning. This play takes chances, it fucks with form and identity, and poses all sorts of challenges to actors, directors, and designers. I am extremely excited about these challenges and have complete faith that my designers and I can make this an insane (in a good way) show that will continue to stretch the boundaries of what theater at Brown can do.
Some thoughts on the rehearsal process...Over the summer- I will ask my actors and designers to carry this play around with them (literally and figuratively). They will be encouraged to draw, write, theorize, and basically play with this text in any way they see fit. I will ask my actors to be familiar with their lines by the end of the summer and to plan to be off book in the second week of rehearsal.When we get back- I would ideally like to begin rehearsals on Monday August 25th. The first few days will be dedicated to getting to know each other and having fun together . The first week will also be dedicated to challenging our own perceptions and modes of thought. I think that it's hugely important that we each understand what's going on in our own minds and respect what's going on in each other's if we want this to be a successful project, and it is in this spirit that we will begin to pick through the play. By the end of the first week and into the beginning of the second week we will begin experimenting with moving the text into the space. We will investigate Josie and Lily's relationship to one another and to the ensemble. We will see what feels natural and play with what feels unnatural. We will challenge each other's impressions and when we return to what feels natural it will be something new. We will try anything and everything. Moving our way through the play. We will dissect the lines- shout them, whisper them in southern accents, find the threads, figure out how to build characters from these words. Everyone should be off book by midway through the second week and at this point we will begin to solidify blocking as well. This will leave a week and a half before tech to get comfortable with blocking and dialogue together and to figure out how to play within the constraints of blocking and lines. Also- The entire rehearsal process will be improv heavy. Churchill develops a lot of her writing through improv sessions and I think that improv will allow us to understand and trust each other and this play in new ways. It will also ensure that everyone contributes to the creativity of this piece. I trust that my actors will have strong ideas and opinions, and improv is a way to not only bring them out but to help create new ones. And speaking of new- We will work on thinking and moving in new ways, we will have at least one silent rehearsal, there will be hours where we cannot use our arms or say words that begin with the letter "r." The process will be unrelentingly devoted to change and reinvention, because this is what I see the text doing, and this is what I think art has the power to do. ConcernsI have not directed. But I have designed and managed and read and thought and written. I have watched shows come together and I have helped build them. I'm sure that my lack of directing experience is a concern. And I understand this. But I promise you that I would not be proposing this show if I did not have 97% confidence in my ability to make this a successful, insightful, challenging, and exciting process that results in an equally successful, insightful, challenging, and exciting show.And I won't be alone. I will ask for help, I will talk to actors and dancers and directors. And my production and design team are incredibly intelligent and talented and I plan on making this an extremely collaborative process. I want to know what other people see in this script Ð I want the show to be malleable, each pair of eyes will leave an imprint. As the director it will be my job to focus these impressions, and to make sure that they don't stifle each other or the production as a whole, but just as importantly it will be my job to consider them and let them affect each other, and the production as a whole. What I Mean is...I am intrigued by this text. The story is haunting, the language is brilliant, the images are piercing. This play has lived with me for the past two weeks, and it will live with me for the next four months and beyond no matter what. But it's too big to stay inside my head, it needs a place to stretch out Ð and so I am asking y'all to be its godparents and to let Bigelow be its playground.
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