Key quotes by Berniece:

“Don’t be going down there showing your color” (27)

 “Money can’t buy what that piano cost. You can’t sell your soul for money.” (50)

“You always talking about your daddy but you ain’t never stopped to look at what his foolishness cost your mama. Seventeen years’ worth of cold nights and an empty bed. For what? For a piano? For a piece of wood? To get even with somebody?... All this thieving and killing and thieving and killing. And what it ever lead to? More killing and more thieving.” (52)

Design Principle (summary)

The design principle that I have stuck with throughout this production is never having too much, but never having too little. I feel like this reflects the two opposite characters, Berniece and Boy Willie, perfectly. Berniece can never be too small. She wants to accept herself as something that the world doesn’t appreciate. As for Boy Willie, he can never have too much. He always wants more and more. This balance reflects Doaker, the one who is content with his life and lives the best way he can.
I’m also going for a realistic approach for this play. If there is comedy in the script, I don’t see it. The only theatrical, imaginary moments I see are when Sutter’s ghost comes out. Even that I want to take seriously. The atmosphere therefore needs to be dull, serious, gloomy, deteriorating, etc. It can’t have the appearance of hope, except for the piano because it pulls them all together in the end. I want it to be very shiny and a bright color of wood. Everything else fades to greens and yellows. Visually, I'm having too much in the costumes, but I'm having very little in the set.

The details of the set in the script literally say that it is scarcely furnaces and also has the slightest tough of a female hand, which I address with the curtains on each window. I make the floor of wooden panels and tile for the kitchen. I think these hard surfaces help emphasis the hard opinions that will happen in this play.
In costumes, you will actually see bright colors, usually one color per person, not just to draw your attention to them, but to also encourage the idea of life in each of them, no matter how hopeless they appear. As for lighting, it will usually be warm, and backlit through the windows, depending on what time of day it is. Like I said, I want it to be very realistic. I might change the lights to blue when the ghost comes out, but we’ll see. I was thinking about doing some dark gold lights when they are chanting slavery songs they sung when they were in jail. I listen to the soundtrack of the original score from the first director, and it was very serious and solemn. It might help illustrate its importance.

Costume: Berniece and Doaker (sketch)

For a thirty-something-year-old, she sure does get a lot of complements on her looks in this play, so I gave Berniece a feminine touch, regardless that she's not dating. As for Doaker, he's "retired from the world," so I made this fifty-something-year-old seem a lot older than he really is.

Stage Layout Thumbnails

 I took my final bird's-eye-view layout of the stage and turn it into a 2D perspective from the audience. Fun fact: I added a window on the right above the stairs because I felt that the wall was a bit empty. Now it's even more noticeable when the sun comes out!

This is less of a forward perspective from the orchestra and more of a downward (mezzanine) look of the stage. It's much more detailed, with light switches and outlets. The animated man is there for scale. Sadly, no matter how hard I tried, the parlor is drawn a little more stretched out than intended. I also changed my mind about the color of the couch: I think it should be a dull color like the rest of the house. I want all focus on the piano and outfits on characters to draw attention to the characters themselves.

Visual Research (50 images!)

Most of the things in this collage are items from the play surrounding the 1930's (fashion, hairstyles, kitchenware, etc.), but there are some things here that don't show up in the play but are mentioned by the characters, like the train and the truck. Enjoy! I used all of these images for inspiration!

Design Idea Exercise

A. Identify and write down all the dichotomies in the play. Are particular characters associated with these two polar extremes?
           bottom vs top, man vs woman, rich vs poor, religious vs nonreligious, paranormal vs head games, decent vs disrespectable, black vs white

D. List the primary themes of the play (about 5). Then, word-associate off each of the themes (5-10 per theme). Lastly, look at your word lists and see if you can combine some of them into new ideas.

a. One must work with what they have to get where they want to go.

·         murder, stealing, labor, bottom, work, talent, exertion, toil, patience, corrupt, cheating

b. Life goes on, whether one likes it or not.

·         missed, regret, achievements, responsibility, kids, death, birth, heritage, phases

c. There’s always two sides to every story.

·         evil, good, misunderstood, war, violence, teams, rivalry

d. An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind.

·         bible, corruption, eyes, out-of-hand, chaos, regression

e. Money won’t buy happiness.

·         money, fame, mature, adulthood, humble, modest, family, carpe diem

I’d see a lot of fatigue and poverty in my words, so I’d make the atmosphere old and unkempt.

E. Make a list of all the words that describe how an environment feels.

            gloomy, old, unkempt, dull, colorless, bland, empty, aging, regression

G. Made a list of verbs that answer the following questions: “What is going on?” “What is happening here?”

            betray, rival, mislead, lie, intrude, steal, take, gossip, justify, defend, reason, fight, argue, work, earn, realize, bond, grow, unite, love