In such a strong "right wing" state as we live in ("vote no on prop 2")
where I get written complaints passed down from parents that write to the
President of the College because tongue piercings are too scary - yes, I do
believe that locals will be riled up at seeing cross-gendered characters
confess their "Love! Love! Love!".

I am not saying I agree (I don't care) and I understand I will be
over-ruled on this, but I feel I should point out that I believe it will
hurt us in the box office.  And it's decisions that hurt us in the box
office that prevent us from simply saying "yes, we can cover the floor with
green Astro Turf" because it's a cool idea.  Painting planks on the floor
(12th night) without a ground-cloth didn't, I feel, distract too much
because planks do have seems...but painting grass on the deck would
definitely not have the same impact as turf.

It's another one of those "art vs. playing to your audience" questions -
and when we try to go for the art - we are satisfied (usually) but the box
office gets hurt (usually).

Of course, if the technical director can be ignored when he says "the
wildlife presenter that wants to use the space should move it back a week
so that it doesn't interfere with Winter Shorts" - then I can see that my
opinion will certainly not be given attention.

At 03:08 AM 9/1/00 -0800, you wrote:

>I'm not sure how cross gender casting would be a family problem.  Nobody
>kisses each
>other, or indeed seems to have any sexual feelings in the play at all.  It
>is kind of
>unique for a Wilde play in that regard.  It's all Love! Love! Love! and
>yet nobody
>seems to feel it any lower in their bodies than about their noses.

- - - - - - - -
Kade Mendelowitz is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska
Fairbanks.
He teaches Lighting Design, Sound Design, and various technical theatre
courses.
Please visit his web site to learn more about him and his work at:

http://www.ldi.nu

Anatoly, Kade, Tara

To tell you the truth, I wasn't real big on the game idea either, but
its the designer's job to put an idea in to "play"  I like the idea
of costumes as a architectural constructs, as restrictive,
disciplining practices dictated by society.  I guess I would share
Kade's concern on the x gender casting but, if there is an innocence
and sense of fun about it.. .maybe. You may be able to take the
concept half way and look at how gender is constructed through
fashion and clothing and not push the x gender casting so much.

Tara-- thanks for your insights on the fashion of the period. We have
a student doing a project on just those issues.  I'll be sure to pass
your wisdom  along.  i like the of white costume colors and perhaps
the colors as picked up by hte video, (created by different fabrics)
combined with specially lit segue scenes could create the effect
Anatoly is looking for.

I spoke with my dean the other day--he is very excited about our
projects and the idea of "out sourcing" our respective  resources and
personnel over long and virtual distances.  I think he senses there
is an article this too.

Anatoly--I would think that the tracking platform could be at least
8'x8' and could hold a couch as you describe.  Putting it in the
center simplifies a lot of mechanical and financial problems.  Is the
piano still in?   What about the screens????

How architectural do you see the arbor /arch?   Is it festooned with flowers?

If we stay with the indoor/ outdoor garden idea, we can still do the
furniture, steamer trunks, chest of drawers, etc.  the objects could
be arranged haphazardly, or more formally like an English garden, (
or both).  Let me know . I'll crank out another sketch.

Dale
Dale E. Seeds
Professor of Theatre/Designer
The College of Wooster
Wooster, Oh 44691
(330) 263-2027 office
(330) 263-2690 fax
(330) 494-4495 home
dseeds@... or
seeds@...

I'm not sure how cross gender casting would be a family problem.  Nobody kisses
each
other, or indeed seems to have any sexual feelings in the play at all.  It is
kind of
unique for a Wilde play in that regard.  It's all Love! Love! Love! and yet
nobody
seems to feel it any lower in their bodies than about their noses.

Kade Mendelowitz wrote:

>
> Hello all.
>
>         I agree with Tara's thoughts on nixing the game board idea in the
> set.  The translucent costumes sound like a fun idea - wilde.  Will try to
> look at the quicktime movie from campus tomorrow (faster connection).
>
>         For such a potentially "family friendly" show - I am against
cross-gender
> casting, just to toss in my two cents.
>
> Kade
> -       -       -       -       -       -       -       -
> Kade Mendelowitz is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska
> Fairbanks.
> He teaches Lighting Design, Sound Design, and various technical theatre
> courses.
> Please visit his web site to learn more about him and his work at:
>
> http://www.ldi.nu
>
> To Post a message, send it to:   wwwilde@eGroups.com
> To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: wwwilde-unsubscribe@eGroups.com

--
----Tara Maginnis, Ph.D., Costume Designer/Associate Professor
Theatre UAF/The University of Alaska Fairbanks

Come see one of the web's largest costume sites
"The Costumer's Manifesto" at http://www.costumes.org
More costume site than you can surf in a day.

----- Original Message -----

From: Tara Maginnis, Ph.D., Costume Designer

To: Dale Seeds ; wwwilde@egroups.com

Sent: Friday, September 01, 2000 2:30 AM

Subject: [wwwilde] Earnest Costume Notes #1

The clothes popping out of trunks idea has been growing on me.  I have been
looking at costume images of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and have
been noticing that there are a lot of clothing items that have a sort of weird
architectural-industrial look to them, that also would be kind of mysterious
when pulled out of context by being seen strewn about.  (see attached). There
is also the strong central image of the "handbag" to justify luggage as a
motif. The Steamer trunk with drawers and hanging storage, that I use to store
vintage clothing in the Trap room could be painted white inside and out and
used for this. I love the handbag in the giant bell jar in the film of Earnest
too.

(I'm not so hot on the game board idea since we did Monopoly a few years ago
with "Inspector General" (which I think FSF might have used for "Merchant"
this summer also), and we used chess for both "Virginia Woolf" and "Miss
Julie" recently, it is probably too soon to use another game board.)

Dress in that period is so very much an architectural construct that forces
the body into conforming to a gender role.  The ideal male and female images
of the time, the "Gibson Girl" and the "Arrow Shirt Man" are both so extreme,
yet modern.  They were the first real mass media images that were put forth
for everyone to try to aspire to and to measure their own appearance against.
What is doubly intriguing is that the ideal male image, the "Arrow Shirt Man"
was generated by a gay artist, J.C. Leyendecker drawing his lover Busch
endlessly....
http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Heights/8255/leyendecker.html  It is an
openly erotic male image style.

I think it would be ok to have totally gender blind casting on this show for
that reason.  Gender is provided by the costumes, not the actor's bodies, and
one could have a healthy mix of boys cast as girls, boys cast as boys, girls
cast as girls, and girls as boys, without any audience person being in doubt
as to the presumed gender of any individual character.   It works in "Cloud
Nine" after all. Normal women in this period wore more body padding and
corsetry to make a "female" figure than most drag queens do now.  Men wore
lock-front collars to keep a permanent stiff-jawed stance.  Some of the
clothing items in this era are so body modifying that they look like torture
devices, or are now considered only bondage fetish wear!

The artificiality extends even to the hair. Men plastered their hair into
patent leather smoothness with brilliantine, and most women curled and
supplemented their real hair with large quantities of fake hair or pads.  If
you saw "The 1900 House", you would have noticed how the two women there never
got their hair to look right, because nobody thought to give them the needed
hair pads.  Real hair just won't go into a "Gibson Girl" look naturally.

Speaking of "The 1900 House", there is a weird video called "The 28th Instance
of July 1914, 10:50 am" http://www.gayweb.com/first_run/instance.html which is
all about two gay artists who live in New York in a "1900 House" fashion and
produce art that is done in the style of the early 20th Century, but is on gay
themes.  I have put it in Anatoly's Box at work, and I think it will help if
it makes the "rounds" because it oddly relates to the issues of constructing
and reconstructing male gender style, and to living simultaneously in 1900 and
in 2000, both of which our production of "Earnest" must do.

I'm putting up a web page with images I have been looking at for inspiration
for this show.  It is at
http://www.costumes.org/galleryimages/earnesttemp/index.htm

I'm still kind of interested in having bits of the costumes be translucent so
that one can see how there are layers on layers of construction to make the
image.  I don't want this so we see any skin, but seeing the insanely complex
architecture of the underclothes just serves to emphasize how artificial the
reality of these folks actually is.  For an idea of why I say this go see this
1880's costume in VRML, it moves, it peels, and it almost turns the wearer
into furniture. (Takes a while to load):
http://cti.itc.Virginia.EDU/~kmr3c/movies/1880cos01.mov

I'm interested in monochromatic off white costumes so that it forces the
emphasis to be on the constructed shape of the garments not the color.  I also
like the idea that the costumes might change color with the lights, to pick up
the mood of the scene better.  The Klimt and Art Nouveau ("Modern") style can
be created with textural details that Lorraine and I can conjure up.  I bought
a pile of cheap lace pieces (pictures also on the web page) in LA that will
help us do this.

Last semester, the advanced costume class also did some experiments with
fabrics, lights and video cameras and discovered several things: costume color
on video is much more determined by lighting than dye color.  Plastics, and
shiny translucent organzas absolutely glow with life on video, subtler more
normal fabrics often look quite dead.  As on stage, any really light color
like a powder blue or a pale pink or a beige reads as white.  Also as on
stage, having a "white" garment be made of lots of light shades put together,
instead of a solid white, makes the garment look more 3-D, but still "white".
So I'm going to try to use this info to see if we can make costumes that will
have the same (or better) effect on video as they do on stage.

--
----Tara Maginnis, Ph.D., Costume Designer/Associate Professor
Theatre UAF/The University of Alaska Fairbanks

Come see one of the web's largest costume sites
"The Costumer's Manifesto" at http://www.costumes.org
More costume site than you can surf in a day.


To Post a message, send it to:   wwwilde@eGroups.com
To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: wwwilde-unsubscribe@eGroups.com

---

Hello all.

	 I agree with Tara's thoughts on nixing the game board idea in the
set.  The translucent costumes sound like a fun idea - wilde.  Will try to
look at the quicktime movie from campus tomorrow (faster connection).

	 For such a potentially "family friendly" show - I am against cross-gender
casting, just to toss in my two cents.

Kade
- - - - - - - -
Kade Mendelowitz is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska
Fairbanks.
He teaches Lighting Design, Sound Design, and various technical theatre
courses.
Please visit his web site to learn more about him and his work at:

http://www.ldi.nu

The clothes popping out of trunks idea has been growing on me.  I have been
looking at costume images of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and have
been noticing that there are a lot of clothing items that have a sort of weird
architectural-industrial look to them, that also would be kind of mysterious
when pulled out of context by being seen strewn about.  (see attached). There
is also the strong central image of the "handbag" to justify luggage as a
motif. The Steamer trunk with drawers and hanging storage, that I use to store
vintage clothing in the Trap room could be painted white inside and out and
used for this. I love the handbag in the giant bell jar in the film of Earnest
too.

(I'm not so hot on the game board idea since we did Monopoly a few years ago
with "Inspector General" (which I think FSF might have used for "Merchant"
this summer also), and we used chess for both "Virginia Woolf" and "Miss
Julie" recently, it is probably too soon to use another game board.)

Dress in that period is so very much an architectural construct that forces
the body into conforming to a gender role.  The ideal male and female images
of the time, the "Gibson Girl" and the "Arrow Shirt Man" are both so extreme,
yet modern.  They were the first real mass media images that were put forth
for everyone to try to aspire to and to measure their own appearance against.
What is doubly intriguing is that the ideal male image, the "Arrow Shirt Man"
was generated by a gay artist, J.C. Leyendecker drawing his lover Busch
endlessly....
http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Heights/8255/leyendecker.html  It is an
openly erotic male image style.

I think it would be ok to have totally gender blind casting on this show for
that reason.  Gender is provided by the costumes, not the actor's bodies, and
one could have a healthy mix of boys cast as girls, boys cast as boys, girls
cast as girls, and girls as boys, without any audience person being in doubt
as to the presumed gender of any individual character.   It works in "Cloud
Nine" after all. Normal women in this period wore more body padding and
corsetry to make a "female" figure than most drag queens do now.  Men wore
lock-front collars to keep a permanent stiff-jawed stance.  Some of the
clothing items in this era are so body modifying that they look like torture
devices, or are now considered only bondage fetish wear!

The artificiality extends even to the hair. Men plastered their hair into
patent leather smoothness with brilliantine, and most women curled and
supplemented their real hair with large quantities of fake hair or pads.  If
you saw "The 1900 House", you would have noticed how the two women there never
got their hair to look right, because nobody thought to give them the needed
hair pads.  Real hair just won't go into a "Gibson Girl" look naturally.

Speaking of "The 1900 House", there is a weird video called "The 28th Instance
of July 1914, 10:50 am" http://www.gayweb.com/first_run/instance.html which is
all about two gay artists who live in New York in a "1900 House" fashion and
produce art that is done in the style of the early 20th Century, but is on gay
themes.  I have put it in Anatoly's Box at work, and I think it will help if
it makes the "rounds" because it oddly relates to the issues of constructing
and reconstructing male gender style, and to living simultaneously in 1900 and
in 2000, both of which our production of "Earnest" must do.

I'm putting up a web page with images I have been looking at for inspiration
for this show.  It is at
http://www.costumes.org/galleryimages/earnesttemp/index.htm

I'm still kind of interested in having bits of the costumes be translucent so
that one can see how there are layers on layers of construction to make the
image.  I don't want this so we see any skin, but seeing the insanely complex
architecture of the underclothes just serves to emphasize how artificial the
reality of these folks actually is.  For an idea of why I say this go see this
1880's costume in VRML, it moves, it peels, and it almost turns the wearer
into furniture. (Takes a while to load):
http://cti.itc.Virginia.EDU/~kmr3c/movies/1880cos01.mov

I'm interested in monochromatic off white costumes so that it forces the
emphasis to be on the constructed shape of the garments not the color.  I also
like the idea that the costumes might change color with the lights, to pick up
the mood of the scene better.  The Klimt and Art Nouveau ("Modern") style can
be created with textural details that Lorraine and I can conjure up.  I bought
a pile of cheap lace pieces (pictures also on the web page) in LA that will
help us do this.

Last semester, the advanced costume class also did some experiments with
fabrics, lights and video cameras and discovered several things: costume color
on video is much more determined by lighting than dye color.  Plastics, and
shiny translucent organzas absolutely glow with life on video, subtler more
normal fabrics often look quite dead.  As on stage, any really light color
like a powder blue or a pale pink or a beige reads as white.  Also as on
stage, having a "white" garment be made of lots of light shades put together,
instead of a solid white, makes the garment look more 3-D, but still "white".
So I'm going to try to use this info to see if we can make costumes that will
have the same (or better) effect on video as they do on stage.

--
----Tara Maginnis, Ph.D., Costume Designer/Associate Professor
Theatre UAF/The University of Alaska Fairbanks

Come see one of the web's largest costume sites
"The Costumer's Manifesto" at http://www.costumes.org
More costume site than you can surf in a day.

Re: Magic Lanterns - I've been doing some research recently on
cinematographic beginnings. Here's a couple of sights that might give you
some ideas;

The Magic Lantern Society http://www.magiclantern.org.uk/
Pinhole Visions http://www.pinhole.com/

and easily the best site for Movie history I've ever seen;
Complete History of the Discovery of Cinematography
http://www.precinemahistory.net/

Hope this helps.

Paul Heckmann
www.FlixUSA.com
18352 Dallas Pkwy, #136 PMB 225
Dallas, TX 75287-5227

----- Original Message -----
From: <wwwilde@egroups.com>
To: <wwwilde@egroups.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 31, 2000 9:12 AM
Subject: [wwwilde] Digest Number 13


>
> To Post a message, send it to:   wwwilde@eGroups.com
> To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: wwwilde-unsubscribe@eGroups.com
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> There are 2 messages in this issue.
>
> Topics in this digest:
>
>       1. MAgic Lanterns
>            From: "Diana WIlliams" <fsdlw1@...>
>       2. Re: Earnest sketch
>            From: Kade Mendelowitz <ffkm1@...>
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> ________________________________________________________________________
>
> Message: 1
>    Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2000 03:50:13 -0000
>    From: "Diana WIlliams" <fsdlw1@...>
> Subject: MAgic Lanterns
>
> Hey everyone:
>
> Diana here
>
> On the projections I keep thinking in terms of Magic Lanterns- ye
> olde stylee things where the image was sent onto wall through candle
> light.
>
> Not in terms of image quality, but more in the nature of something
> that has enough impact that you are forced to notice it.
>
> Also, when BioMX is mentioned in teh extreeme that you seem to
> stricve for, of everyihing set out, styalized, purpously
> unatural "stagey" I keep thinking of those jilty Lumere Brothers
> flicks.  Jerry Brigham (I think) may have copy of a tape... Those
> Journey to the moon things?  Those would be GREAT idea to show to the
> cast.
>
> Also if you want it that stylzed make them watch (homework again...)
> Bad opera.  Granted those singers do not usually intend what they are
> doing to be a caractiure of style, but that is how it comes out.
> The over-big deliberate gestures.
>
> Are you wanting to use the BioMX to create a prision of movement for
> the characters to provide more tragic inner-conflict?  Or is it to
> provide structure to teh whole thing?  Why I wonder..
>
> I really like the astroturf idea for the floor.  Even the dinky
> square of it Jason and co. used for "Zoo Story" created quite a
> visual impact.
>
> Can we have smell-o-theater?  Flood house with the smell of Earl Grey
> tea?  Of Gardenias? Gardenias seem appropirate for this show...
>
> Diana  ( I hope everyone noticed that in an attempt to honor my
> degree, I am trying to type in a more readable fashion.  Also it is
> not my show, so I am not nearly as mentally tweaked about it...)
>
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> ________________________________________________________________________
>
> Message: 2
>    Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2000 22:49:55 -0800
>    From: Kade Mendelowitz <ffkm1@...>
> Subject: Re: Earnest sketch
>
> Dale,
>
>          Received the set rendering.  Looks neat.  I'll have to look into
> the price for turf up here to see if we can pull that off.
>
>          Not sure about the whole projected costume thing - I have an idea
> for it that might be interesting though.  What if, instead of having the
> person stand there and have a projection on them, what if they wear
> whatever costumes Tara designs (freeing her of the need for them to be
> white if she desires to stray) and then projecting them a pre-recorded
> thing of them that morph / transforms them from wearing either
> undergarments or a basic outfit (or even jeans and "t" shirts) into the
> costume (can do that on computer) so it looks like they go into a "clothes
> replicator" (like Star Trek) or something like that.  Not much to do with
> set, this note, but I have fears the projected costume idea won't read
> well.  This, I think, would just seem cool.
>
>          All of these notes together, though, and I must admit I'm
confused
> over the possibility of a camera crew?  For what?  I don't see it for this
> show.  And if we're going that way, should the set me more "techie" in
nature?
>
> Kade
>
> At 10:58 PM 8/30/00 -0400, you wrote:
> >Anatoly
> >
> >Still not sure where we want to go --so I thought I'd throw a rough
sketch
> >out and see if that helps.
> >
> >The thrust stage is the same as we used in 12th Night.  The set has an
> >arbor with a gate that allows a tracked wagon to move up stage /down
stage
> >for scene shifts.  Upstage across the back, to hide the scene changes, is
> >a 6'-8' high curtain like we originally planned to use in 12th night.
The
> >back drop could be a cyc or black curtains. On either side of the arbor
> >are smaller screens that the actors could use to have their white
costumes
> >projected upon before they enter the scene.  The screens could also be
> >used for rear video projection, possibly even the front gate of the arbor
> >could be a rear projection screen  behind the the lattice?
> >
> >The entire set is white, with artificial GREEN turf covering all the
> >floor. Its a sort of indoor/outdoor garden concept.
> >
> >Its probably a bit too realistic?? --perhaps we can abstract some of this
> >to reflect the bingo  or croquette game concept??
> >
> >What kind of a budget are we talking? Modest, I  assume?
> >
> >
> >Dale E. Seeds
> >Professor of Theatre/Designer
> >The College of Wooster
> >Wooster, Oh 44691
> >(330) 263-2027 office
> >(330) 263-2690 fax
> >(330) 494-4495 home
> >dseeds@... or
> >seeds@...
>
> - - - - - - - -
> Kade Mendelowitz is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska
> Fairbanks.
> He teaches Lighting Design, Sound Design, and various technical theatre
> courses.
> Please visit his web site to learn more about him and his work at:
>
> http://www.ldi.nu
>
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> ________________________________________________________________________
>
>
>
>

Dale,

          Received the set rendering.  Looks neat.  I'll have to look into
the price for turf up here to see if we can pull that off.

          Not sure about the whole projected costume thing - I have an idea
for it that might be interesting though.  What if, instead of having the
person stand there and have a projection on them, what if they wear
whatever costumes Tara designs (freeing her of the need for them to be
white if she desires to stray) and then projecting them a pre-recorded
thing of them that morph / transforms them from wearing either
undergarments or a basic outfit (or even jeans and "t" shirts) into the
costume (can do that on computer) so it looks like they go into a "clothes
replicator" (like Star Trek) or something like that.  Not much to do with
set, this note, but I have fears the projected costume idea won't read
well.  This, I think, would just seem cool.

          All of these notes together, though, and I must admit I'm confused
over the possibility of a camera crew?  For what?  I don't see it for this
show.  And if we're going that way, should the set me more "techie" in nature?

Kade

At 10:58 PM 8/30/00 -0400, you wrote:
>Anatoly
>
>Still not sure where we want to go --so I thought I'd throw a rough sketch
>out and see if that helps.
>
>The thrust stage is the same as we used in 12th Night.  The set has an
>arbor with a gate that allows a tracked wagon to move up stage /down stage
>for scene shifts.  Upstage across the back, to hide the scene changes, is
>a 6'-8' high curtain like we originally planned to use in 12th night.  The
>back drop could be a cyc or black curtains. On either side of the arbor
>are smaller screens that the actors could use to have their white costumes
>projected upon before they enter the scene.  The screens could also be
>used for rear video projection, possibly even the front gate of the arbor
>could be a rear projection screen  behind the the lattice?
>
>The entire set is white, with artificial GREEN turf covering all the
>floor. Its a sort of indoor/outdoor garden concept.
>
>Its probably a bit too realistic?? --perhaps we can abstract some of this
>to reflect the bingo  or croquette game concept??
>
>What kind of a budget are we talking? Modest, I  assume?
>
>
>Dale E. Seeds
>Professor of Theatre/Designer
>The College of Wooster
>Wooster, Oh 44691
>(330) 263-2027 office
>(330) 263-2690 fax
>(330) 494-4495 home
>dseeds@... or
>seeds@...

- - - - - - - -
Kade Mendelowitz is an Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska
Fairbanks.
He teaches Lighting Design, Sound Design, and various technical theatre
courses.
Please visit his web site to learn more about him and his work at:

http://www.ldi.nu

Hey everyone:

Diana here

On the projections I keep thinking in terms of Magic Lanterns- ye
olde stylee things where the image was sent onto wall through candle
light.

Not in terms of image quality, but more in the nature of something
that has enough impact that you are forced to notice it.

Also, when BioMX is mentioned in teh extreeme that you seem to
stricve for, of everyihing set out, styalized, purpously
unatural "stagey" I keep thinking of those jilty Lumere Brothers
flicks.  Jerry Brigham (I think) may have copy of a tape... Those
Journey to the moon things?  Those would be GREAT idea to show to the
cast.

Also if you want it that stylzed make them watch (homework again...)
Bad opera.  Granted those singers do not usually intend what they are
doing to be a caractiure of style, but that is how it comes out.
The over-big deliberate gestures.

Are you wanting to use the BioMX to create a prision of movement for
the characters to provide more tragic inner-conflict?  Or is it to
provide structure to teh whole thing?  Why I wonder..

I really like the astroturf idea for the floor.  Even the dinky
square of it Jason and co. used for "Zoo Story" created quite a
visual impact.

Can we have smell-o-theater?  Flood house with the smell of Earl Grey
tea?  Of Gardenias? Gardenias seem appropirate for this show...

Diana  ( I hope everyone noticed that in an attempt to honor my
degree, I am trying to type in a more readable fashion.  Also it is
not my show, so I am not nearly as mentally tweaked about it...)

Tara, you can see on my Wilde pages a lot of Klimt images (sample:
http://members.theglobe.com/rusam/script/wilde.html)

I do not know if we can project the costumes, but this decorative
feel would come from the "projected" richness of colors on the
blank "people" (maybe we can place one slide projector near the
piano, SL down, away from the screen SR). Then they can enter, stop,
to introduce their own fantacies about themselves and when they go on
with the blocking, the stage lights could color them together. Maybe
the same trick on exits.

Kade and Dale can coordinate the light and surface colors to get the
effect of "projected identities."

The costumes do not have to be completely white (offwhite), but
something of the whiteness in the "Wild Strawberies" (the past). This
is summer air.

Dale, the platform should have some poles (maybe even like a gazebo,
or a stable fence on one side) -- to make it easy to move around with
a grace. It would be nice to move the grand piano (three times at
least = in each act) around the same spot, so it will face the
audience differently.

Anatoly

----- Original Message -----

From: Dale Seeds

To: wwwilde@egroups.com

Sent: Friday, August 11, 2000 10:34 AM

Subject: Re: [wwwilde] Director's notes from the Cyberground

Anatoly

The rolling platform could be used as a camera dolly as well as a way
for moving small furniture units. Are e talk about 1 4'x8' platform/
do you want it to move laterally, up stage/down stage or diagonally?
Can stage hands be  seen pushing the platform or do we need to
consider some sort tracked and winch system so they appear to move by
them selves?  do we need two platforms-- one from either side?.

what about a raked "yard" set, coved in artificial grass to to play
croquet? wickets and all? the wagon/s cold be used to move various
lawn furniture in and out?  Possibly an arbor or trellis could be
used. I suppose we could use Tara's back yard too. . .   All the
cultural ceremonies you mention could take place outside.  Prism on a
bicycle.. .  Rev, Chausable is trout fishing; Algy smoking a hoouka
in a turban, Persian slippers and  a dressing gown.

Servants could roll up the artificial grass at he end of the show.

Perhaps the biomechanics exercises before each scene are like a
repertoire of Del Sarte poses or like pictures in a hand-held
Victorian stereoscope?

Why the grand piano?   form some reason it makes me think of Dali's  surreal

Andulsian Dog

Dale
Dale E. Seeds
Professor of Theatre/Designer
The College of Wooster
Wooster, Oh 44691
(330) 263-2027 office
(330) 263-2690 fax
(330) 494-4495 home
dseeds@... or
seeds@...
To Post a message, send it to:   wwwilde@eGroups.com
To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: wwwilde-unsubscribe@eGroups.com

Anatoly

The rolling platform could be used as a camera dolly as well as a way
for moving small furniture units. Are e talk about 1 4'x8' platform/
do you want it to move laterally, up stage/down stage or diagonally?
Can stage hands be  seen pushing the platform or do we need to
consider some sort tracked and winch system so they appear to move by
them selves?  do we need two platforms-- one from either side?.

what about a raked "yard" set, coved in artificial grass to to play
croquet? wickets and all? the wagon/s cold be used to move various
lawn furniture in and out?  Possibly an arbor or trellis could be
used. I suppose we could use Tara's back yard too. . .   All the
cultural ceremonies you mention could take place outside.  Prism on a
bicycle.. .  Rev, Chausable is trout fishing; Algy smoking a hoouka
in a turban, Persian slippers and  a dressing gown.

Servants could roll up the artificial grass at he end of the show.

Perhaps the biomechanics exercises before each scene are like a
repertoire of Del Sarte poses or like pictures in a hand-held
Victorian stereoscope?

Why the grand piano?   form some reason it makes me think of Dali's  surreal

Andulsian Dog

Dale
Dale E. Seeds
Professor of Theatre/Designer
The College of Wooster
Wooster, Oh 44691
(330) 263-2027 office
(330) 263-2690 fax
(330) 494-4495 home
dseeds@... or
seeds@...

Dale, Tara,

the conceptual rambling:

"Biomechanics as Style" -- staged mini-acts within each scene:

1. "Hand Kissing" (men-to-women)
2. Hand Shaking (men-to-men)
3. Kissing on the Check (women-to-women)
4. Drinking Tea (British Master-Gesture)
5. Getting up and be seated ceremony
6. Pauses and Poses
7. Entrance/Exit for each character

The Floor? the platform (small -- table & chairs) moves on the ground
which looks like a board for scrabbles (game words -- puzzles).

The risers SL at the back, 90% to the screen. The grand piano is DSL.

Each props is treated separately -- newspapers, books, hats, gloves,
sticks, amrellas -- on the tray.

BioMX as Style = mannerism. Smoking as ritual, like wine drinking;
preporation, but nobody smokes or drinks. The actual act is always
absent. That is the "Aesthetic Movement"! They smell things, smell
everything!

Something is hanging from the celling, but I don't know what?
Connected to Magnetism and Chiromantics?

Card playing -- and crocket?

Dancing and Salon Games.

Men are in nice robes (as if in Playboy Mansion).

I have some music; Anton Rubinstein died in 1895, was very popular.
Meyerhold used his music and designs by Bakst for his silent
film "Portrait of Dorian Gray" (1908). Very decadent,
very "Symbolism."

Anatoly

Shakespeare is the beginning, Wilde is the end.

I still want women-spectators (with the cameras) on the set.

There is a grand piano, SL -- opposite to the screen, even if the
black one.

I made so many WWWilde pages that I do not remember thr URLs -- I try
to link them all together.

Go to http://members.theglobe.com/rusam/shows/wwwilde/intro.html --
I'll place them all there.

I have to talk to the film crew: I'm still not sure if I can over-
burden actors with video-cameras.

There is an important page on Biomechanics as a Style.

Dale, can we incorporate (one) moving platform (not only for the set
changing), but for the movement during the scenes (I still want to
use it for the dolly shots)?

Anatoly

Tara, thanks for good news about our Theatre Coordinator.

Now, about my agony over the thought to do the cross-gender casting
in "The Importance of Being Earnest" -- I fear that even with the
Biomechanics as Style (every gesture staged) I won't get the
genderless world. The choice must be big for actors to get there.

Even with the blank (white) costumes and set the stylized (acted out
social world) is too abstract. I am not so concerned about males
playing Cicely and Mr. Prism. The guys played by women is a problem
(our pool). Maybe there is a way to dress them radically in gender;
to stress the sexual divide, which is formal only.

I'm still struggling with Foucault construction of sexual identity
and Wilde's idea that this this is the only art worth doing. Perhaps,
this is again my postmodern take on the classic comedy of modernity,
but without the extreme take on the play it could be a PBS production
at best.

They play all the time; they watch themselves in the mirrors (cameras
and screen), only on occassion they notice each other -- Oh, dear!
And back to the mirror, they are in love with themselves (like Oscar
himself). They don't need the Other; each of them has it alredy --
ME! (I try to bring it to our times -- The Era of the Singles, The
Jerry Signfield Co.)

I spent two week making Biomechanics directory out of my hard drive
files: http://afronord.tripod.com/biomx/index.html

More later

Anatoly

Sorry, WWWilde folks,

I gave Kade a short summary for PR on "The Importance of Being
Earnest" -- http://members.theglobe.com/script/wilde.html

And while updating Acting Directory for the Intermediate Acting
class, I had to open a new directory on Biomechanics @
http://afronord.tripod.com/biomx/index.html

We tried BioMX as method of physical action in 12th Night, now I want
to see if we can use it as STYLE.

I never thought I can consider it, because the last time I saw it
done by the Pheonix Theatre in NYC, it was totaly rediculous! Every
movement was staged and separate from everything else... But Oscar
Wilde wrote a comedy (regardless of my thoughts about the tragic
postmodern meaning of the play and writer himself).

I hope that between the Wilde section for Playscript Analysis class
and Acting class, I can post enough notes to give you some sense of
the concept.

Anatoly

I can't read your main page at
http://members.spree.com/anatoly48/frussia/cover.htm

because of the graphic.  I'm attaching lost of different background options,
all based on the poster graphic you have, that will load faster and make the
text more legible.  They are quite varied, and I expect that you will find
one that suits you.

I'll let you know about the content on the other pages later, however, I
thought making the main one legible would help in access to all the
others.--Tara


Anatoly Antohin wrote:

> This is the only time, when I can do some writing (see Father-Russia
> Files @ http://members.spree.com/anatoly48/frussia/cover.htm) and to
> fix my websites. Please, send your feedback, because I won't be able
> to do any major redesign until next summer.

--
----Tara Maginnis, Ph.D., Costume Designer/Associate Professor
Theatre UAF/The University of Alaska Fairbanks

Come see one of the web's largest costume sites
"The Costumer's Manifesto" at http://www.costumes.org
More costume site than you can surf in a day.

This is the only time, when I can do some writing (see Father-Russia
Files @ http://members.spree.com/anatoly48/frussia/cover.htm) and to
fix my websites. Please, send your feedback, because I won't be able
to do any major redesign until next summer.

Since I got a permission from John Freedman, I post the latest
theatre news from Moscow. Lyubimov is the director, who got me
interested in directing.

Anatoly

-------------------------------
Pre-publication version of a review of "Eugene Onegin" and of
the "Marquee" column to be published in the Moscow Times June 16,
2000. Any and all quotations of, or references to, these articles
must cite John Freedman. (c)
2000 John Freedman The final versions will be available with
accompanying photo beginning Friday at www.themoscowtimes.com/thebeat
-------------------------------
By John Freedman

Yury Lyubimov's dramatization -- I would actually call it a
theatricalization -- of "Eugene Onegin" at the Taganka Theater may not
satisfy Pushkin purists. And it will not satisfy those who, as one
character quips to healthy laughter during the show, are "tired of
Lyubimov."

I suppose somebody somewhere might be tired of Lyubimov. At 83 years
of age, this former actor-turned-world-class-director has been a
prominent figure -- often a controversial one -- in Russian theater
for over half a century. The Taganka, which he founded in 1964, was
establishing a new theatrical aesthetic when Vladimir Putin was still
a cute kid in a red Pioneer neckerchief.

Someone might look at "Onegin," yawn and say, "Been there, seen
that." And maybe they'd be right to some extent. But they'd be
missing the point.

In this production, Lyubimov created a celebration of theater in
general, and of his own unique brand in particular. Least of all was
he interested in the traditional details of Pushkin's verse novel
about an aimless St.Petersburg dandy who kills his only friend in a
duel and doesn't realize he has passed on a good woman's love until
it is too late.

The novel is mostly there, although it is rearranged and spread out
among a large cast of actors who share the utterances of Onegin, his
romantic buddy Lensky, the spurned Tatyana and Pushkin himself.  Soon
enough, we come to recognize that Dmitry Mulyar is the principal
Onegin and Lyubov Selyutina the primary Tatyana; that Yury Mazikhin
plays Lensky and Yulia Kuvarzina plays Lensky's sweetheart Olga.

But it is important to Lyubimov's conception that the characters not
be identified clearly. Every Russian knows this novel almost by heart
and, by dressing five actors and five actresses in identical Onegin
and Tatyana costumes, Lyubimov pays homage to his audience -- he
knows they know who is who even if everyone on stage looks the same.

Several comical Pushkin figures wander the stage in "I Love Pushkin"
or "My Pushkin" T-shirts. One, the versatile Timur Badalbeili who
later plays Tatyana's rather ridiculous husband, slaps on a sideburn
and becomes the spitting image of the poet.

This is where Lyubimov comes closest to making real contact with
Pushkin's novel -- in the relationship of the audience to it and its
author. This production continually toys with the notion that "Eugene
Onegin" and  Pushkin are omnipresent in Russian life.

Lyubimov underscores that with a delightful theatrical game in the
finale when he sends an actor into the crowd to encourage spectators
to recite any single line from the novel. As soon as someone does,
the line is shouted back to the stage where a funky rhythmic chorus
lead by Felix Antipov immediately catches it up and begins singing
the text from that random beginning.

It is a glorious, ingenious scene that declares, "Scratch a Russian,
find 'Eugene Onegin.'" But if you come to this show hoping to find
the reverent romanticism of, say, Tchaikovsky's opera -- bits of
Tchaikovsky's music are interspersed with clunky, quirky fragments
from Alfred Schnittke and Vladimir Martynov --
you will be disappointed, if not dazed. For this "Eugene Onegin" is
really about the theater of Yury Lyubimov. It is a banquet of the
styles and devices that Lyubimov has developed in his storied, 36-
year directing career.

The show consists of running episodes, similar to numbers in a circus
performance. Transitions are lightning-quick, facilitated by musical
interludes, short comic scenes, glimmering flashlights piercing the
dark or by action in one place overtaking what has been transpiring
elsewhere. The actors invariably address the spectators directly and
vigorously.

The lyrical aspects of the novel are usually undermined by theatrical
shenanigans. When Tatyana falls in love with Onegin, an actor above
her releases an inflated balloon that buzzes and squeals above the
stage until it drops, limp, on the floor.

Selyutina's Tatyana is nothing like the image that has come down to
us in the 170 years since the novel was written. She is more like
Tatyana twenty-years on, looking back on the follies of her youth
with irony and some -- but not too much -- affection.

Boris Blank's two-tiered set of cubicles that can be opened or closed
off by curtains is a major participant in the goings-on. The actors
play the curtains as if they were percussive instruments, sliding
them briskly back and forth in syncopation. When the cubicles are
closed, the actors perform scenes of shadow theater behind them.

All of this, visually and dynamically, is a throwback to such famous
old Lyubimov shows as "The Good Person of Setzuan," "Ten Days that
Shook the World" and "Listen! Mayakovsky." But, unlike Lyubimov's
recent revival of "Good Person," this is no museum piece. It may be
unwieldy and it may sag at times, but most often it pops with
theatrical energy.

I'm not tired of Lyubimov. I say, bring on more of this!

***"Eugene Onegin" plays June 20 and 21 at 7 p.m. at the Taganka
Theater,located at 76 Ulitsa Zemlyanoi Val. Metro Taganskaya. Tel.
915-1217.
Running Time: 2 hours, 15 mins.***

MARQUEE COLUMN
The National Youth Theater closed the season with a bit of the new
and a bit of the old all in one. Alexei Borodin actually staged "The
Diary of Anne Frank" three years ago as a student production at the
Russian Academy of Theater Arts where he teaches. Now, with a partly
new cast, he has opened the show at the Youth Theater where he is the
artistic director.

Even as a student production, this show garnered attention because of
Chulpan Khamatova, the young actress who played -- and still plays --
Anne, the Jewish adolescent girl who chronicles in a diary the two
years her family spent in hiding in a loft during the Nazi occupation
of Holland.
Since then, Khamatova has become one of Russia's top young stars.

It is good, however, to see her in this intimate, dramatic and non-
glitzy role. This season I saw her shine in two highly-hyped
productions, but none of them match her challenging and satisfying
work as Anne.

Khamatova is a charming, charismatic young woman bubbling with
energy. That
makes her perfect as the sensitive, independent-minded 13-year-old
Anne. It
is a mark of her talent that I never thought it a stretch that she was
playing a character nearly half her age.

The play by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, which has made the
rounds
of the world's stages and cinemas since 1955, is a schematic
narrative piece
with all the requisite sentimental signposts in place. But then this
story
of a young girl and her family, most of whom were eventually
exterminated in
the Nazi death camps, is one that attacks the emotions.

Borodin effectively places the actors and spectators together on the
stage.
Dim lighting holds a sense of suspense and by lowering spotlight
booms down
just above our heads, Borodin creates a tangible sense of
claustrophobia.
This is a simple but moving piece of theater directed well and with
good
acting at the center.

-- John Freedman

----- Original Message -----

From: Gary S Maynard

To: Tara Maginnis, Ph.D., Costume Designer

Cc: wwwilde@egroups.com

Sent: Thursday, May 11, 2000 8:45 AM

Subject: Re: [wwwilde] I told you i would be back

You know what Tara everyone i have talked to in the theatre dept with
the exception of one graduating senior agreed with what i have to say
about the lack of professionalism of the faculty. You painted t-shirts
that said just say no to muscials-isnt that childish ego games. Honestly,
the more responses i get like yours the more i love it. You see i am not a
theatre major any more I am a graduate student-that's right. So, you can
all breathe a sigh of relief except one of you because I am still not done
with him. The way I was dismissed was inexcusable. Everyone know about my
schedule conflicts and I had cleared my schedule to make it to every
rehearsal it is hard doing this when you have a job as a resident
assistant, but why would you people have sympathy. Oh, and by the way you
think this dept. is going get me ready for professional
acting--HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAAHAHAH. COME ON LETS BE
REALISTIC. I have talent as a writer and actor but it has been stomped on
and discourage, but now i know enough about acting and have written
enought to go out on my own. So, no more attending classes where only one
person shows up and sometimes other people show up an hour late.

But no one is going to stop me from making my opinion known
NOBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


GARY

---

---

To Post a message, send it to:   wwwilde@eGroups.com
To Unsubscribe, send a blank message to: wwwilde-unsubscribe@eGroups.com

You know what Tara everyone i have talked to in the theatre dept with
the exception of one graduating senior agreed with what i have to say
about the lack of professionalism of the faculty. You painted t-shirts
that said just say no to muscials-isnt that childish ego games. Honestly,
the more responses i get like yours the more i love it. You see i am not a
theatre major any more I am a graduate student-that's right. So, you can
all breathe a sigh of relief except one of you because I am still not done
with him. The way I was dismissed was inexcusable. Everyone know about my
schedule conflicts and I had cleared my schedule to make it to every
rehearsal it is hard doing this when you have a job as a resident
assistant, but why would you people have sympathy. Oh, and by the way you
think this dept. is going get me ready for professional
acting--HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHHAAHAHAH. COME ON LETS BE
REALISTIC. I have talent as a writer and actor but it has been stomped on
and discourage, but now i know enough about acting and have written
enought to go out on my own. So, no more attending classes where only one
person shows up and sometimes other people show up an hour late.

But no one is going to stop me from making my opinion known
NOBODY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


GARY

Gary.  Please.  Could you please just grow up and stop annoying everyone
with these childish ego games.   Behave like a responsible adult and people
will treat you like one.  Behaving like a naughty child will just make
everyone regard you as such.  Do you have any idea how much these little
e-mail temper tantrums cause the other students to disdain you?  You need to
be trying to earn their respect; they are the people who will work with you,
cast you in student shows, help you learn and grow as a person and an
actor.  If you consistently degrade their work, make offensive comments, and
treat them with disrespect, they will return the favor.  Earn their respect
by behaving with respect.  The students and faculty at UAF are not the enemy
of your success, your poor attitude and rehearsal habits are.  Get over it.
--
----Tara Maginnis, Ph.D., Costume Designer/Associate Professor
Theatre UAF/The University of Alaska Fairbanks

I am back and subscribed.

who knows what will happen next. I certainly dont.
AHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Imprisoned Liberty:
Pomo Individuality and Blank Humor in Pynchon's "Low-lands"

                        ABSTRACT

As postmodernism (pomo) undergoes the inevitable translation from
nebulous ideology to literary genre, it becomes possible to identify
postmodern fictions by their revisionistic intertextuality
(pastiche),
resolution-resistant structure, and humorous handling of ambiguity.
Manifesting these qualities, Thomas Pynchon's short story
"Low-lands,"
first published in 1960, achieves a universality of reference through
the compression of the past and present, which allows the author to
comment effectively on contemporary individuality in the face of an
incomprehensible world, and the necessary (albeit precarious)
psychological balance between rationality and disorder.

Tracing intertextual links between "Low-lands" and both Keats'
Endymion and Eliot's "The Waste Land," I locate in both works
incidence of what William Empson has termed seventh-type ambiguity,
or
logical disorder. If it is a pomo move for Pynchon to privilege
irrationality over logic, it becomes even more so when he
destabilizes
his own dichotomy by proceeding into the realm of ambivalence, where
chaos and order are one. Another key antithetical pairing located in
the text is that of the sublime and the ridiculous. Pynchon
deconstructs these dichotomies, creating freeplay among polar
opposites and, ultimately, open-ended uncertainty.

This uncertainty, compounded with oneiric qualities which supplement
the text with the possibility that the hero remains asleep from the
moment he drifts off misquoting "The Tempest," becomes a hinge, the
pin of which may well be sanity; for dreams may be the psychological
disorder which calms the sea of the mind. Pynchon's pratfall is to
pull the pin of this hinge, uncoupling order and chaos.

Pomo humor is not 'black' humor; it is blank humor. It is a humor
that
tends to divorce itself from irony, which (except in its least stable
forms) depends for efficacy upon an underlying certainty. In
"Low-lands," Pynchon applies the sudden juxtaposition of antithetical
concepts and emotions to create (paradoxically) sincere satire and
parody sans laughter.

A telling fact which emerges from the nexus of possibilities which is
"Low-lands" is that Pynchon's pomo (anti)hero does not (cannot?)
remain alone. His individuality depends upon the constraints of
interpersonal relationships. His personal liberty is imprisoned
within
society.

V-Crew, thank you for your virtuosity, but to make your lives easy
next time around, we will have a real-time-space meeting (check time,
date and location with Jason).

The Cast Party at 7 PM on Sun: 115 Kelsan Way 455-6149 (non-virtual,
but I promised actors that we will show them some footage).

VTHR Meeting Agenda (not in order of priorities, please add):

1. I need your resumes for grant writing package (bring or better
post them)

2. WebDrama (KAUC-JB's idea to webcast "radio-drama," now we have
fiber-optic connection in our theatre).

3. Playwriting Class -- Spring 2001 (Tom & I working on proposal to
offer it next accademic year).

4. WWWilde pre and post-production (deadlines, budget, $$, etc).

6. 3sis package & 12th Night in addition to VTHR Master-File to palce
in the library

6. Virtual Theatre Class (Spring'01) -- see
http://members.theglobe.com/rusam/vtheatre/guide.htm
Give your feedback!

** Need to organize our experience (manuals).

vTheatre (I work on it every day) @ http://refcities.com/theatre

See you tonight.

Anatoly

Enter your vote today!  Check out the new poll for the wwwilde
group:


"Earnest" is a great comedy because...

   o Satire on Victorian High Society
   o On educated class
   o On humans without purpose in life
   o On marriage
   o Man-woman relations
   o Life which is nothing but void
   o On existentialism, when we have to invent ourselves
   o Us, who can even know our sexuality
   o Made-up (mental) Fellings
   o We are in love with ourselves only
   o We laugh when we fear
   o It's too stupid to be tragic
   o Only fools take themselves serious
   o Language must be played with!
   o It's a parody on
   o British all prepentious jerks
   o Anatoly is a postmodernist
   o Wilde was a gay
   o He knew that he is writing his last paly
   o Comedy of characters
   o it's a sitcom!
   o Oscar was elitist
   o he knew that modernity is over


To vote, please visit the following web page:

http://www.egroups.com/polls/wwwilde

Note: Please do not reply to this message. Poll votes are
not collected via email. To vote, you must go to the eGroups
web site listed above.

Thanks!

Cinematographer=actor=cinematographor. Remember Sex lies and videotapes or
american beauty. Challenging almagamation. POV's of actors on space are
what? Cinematographic or non-reflectic and present in the acting.
Questions for actors and willing cinematographers.
rafaela

>
> I want to have this "modern" (style) of the turn of the century --
> maybe furniture can do it. The play asks for decadence!
>

For those of you not up on Russian Architectural History  "Modern" style in
Russian art is identical in style to French "Art Nouveau" of 1900,  not
"Modernism" ie- 1950's American stuff.  Anatoly is talking about that Mucha
http://www.nymuseum.com/mucha.htm
http://vip.latnet.lv/ArtNouveau/
style of art and architecture.  Just in case anyone was erroniously thinking
of Eames Furnature or Eichlers.


--
----Tara Maginnis, Ph.D., Costume Designer/Associate Professor
Theatre UAF/The University of Alaska Fairbanks

Come see one of the web's largest costume sites
"The Costumer's Manifesto" at http://www.costumes.org
More costume site than you can surf in a day.

In order to desctroy the distance between the stage and the public. I
want the screens to be extended into the house.

The above screen (triangle?) moves (left-right is easy), upstage-
downstage is more difficult. It changes agles (projector too).

It would be nice to have "curtain" effects when the images are
distorted... The Room of Laghter with twisted mirrors.

This is the inner reality of our heroes.

I want to have this "modern" (style) of the turn of the century --
maybe furniture can do it. The play asks for decadence!

I will post the painters and posters of the period (Original Moscow
Art Theatre building has it all -- the vegitation, figures, etc.)

To collect the architectural material for video-slide projection.

Back stage people -- to operate the screens and projectors.

Of course, the switcher-editor is off stage.

More on vTheatre at Special Topics for Spring 2001 --
http://members.theglobe.com/rusam/vtheatre/guide.htm

A

I do not want to have camera-performers on the set. I want actors to
shoot it. The boys are video-camera fanatics, they like to video-tape
everything (remember the two officers with photo-camera in 3 Sisters
I cut out?) They all crazy enough to walk every where with camcorders.

The problem is that actors should know how to shoot, or
cinematographers -- how to act.

Also, maybe it should be done in this silent movies style... Black &
White, no sound, titles -- and live sound not in sink with the screen
images.

There are 9 roles -- nine cameras?!
Nine POVs? Nine stories?

Too many!

For people who plan to audition -- read the play and get to the level
of tragedy in this comedy. People divorced from themselves, including
their sexuality. What a happy end this double marriage!

Without the drama the comedy will be flat. Oscar Wilde has stoicism
tradition in his blood -- laghter as a result of horror facing the
void of epmty existence.

A

There are three locations:

Act I -- Algernon's flat
Act II -- The Garden
Act III -- Drawing-Room

Two platforms to roll in (changing the set in the wings).

The idea is to project the set on two screens (or one placed
diagonally) with big windows to project the street (screen within
screen).
The Characters enter and exit on the screen (recorded) and live.

If we do not have an intermission between Act I and II, we roll the
setin together with the "train shot" (pre-recorded), traveling from
London to the country-side. We roll the "Garden" set, when we arrive
on the screen to Woolton.

I still do not know how can we project the "set" and the "costumes"
at the same time and all those projections will affect the stage
lighting.

I do want to see blank (white) set and costumes first -- then we
start adding colors in stages -- this goes together with the concept
of creating self-identities. I will post postmodern texts (Foucault,
Deleuze, Virilio) explaining Wilde's take on existential principle of
the hight modernity. I will extend Wilde Page in Playscript Analysis
Class -- http://members.theglobe.com/rusam/classes/413.html (Iteach
it in the Fall'00).

The "travel shots" and the Garden we have to shoot in the summer or
in Sept. right away.

I still think that for the street shots (window) we can use footage
of actual streets in London. Maybe even the turn of the century
footage.

Anatoly