Tags
ATHE 2013, Collaboration, Design, Dramaturgy, Experimentation, New Orleans, Proverbs, Rehearsal Photos, Religion, Theatre, Theoretical Writing, Workshopping
Today I had the great pleasure of participating in the Playwrights and Creative Teams (PACT) Pre-Conference session as part of ATHE 2013. We worked on a fascinating play entitled Proverbs, written by professional playwright and producer extraordinaire, Charlene A. Donaghy. The play is a dark slice of Southern Gothic drama set in New Orleans on April 29, 1927, the day the Caernarvon levee was blown to ease the swelling of the Mississippi River and its tributaries after intense rains had resulted in heavy flooding (not unlike what the city would later experience during Hurricane Katrina). I served as dramaturg and had a blast putting together a packet that touched on the Great Mississippi Flood and also on the play’s rich biblical background (one of the characters, the otherworldly Horse-Man, speaks entirely in verses from the book of Proverbs, each of them delivered with foreboding resonance). It was a pleasure to dramaturg thanks to the rich tapestry of themes and historical/textual meanings, and I was flattered to find it very useful to the other members of the Pre-Conference, particularly the playwright.
The actual session began in a fairly standard fashion with a reading of the play followed by a brief question-and-answer session between the playwright and the rest of the collective. We then split into two groups: four designers were left in our main room to research and come up with conceptual art/designs for the piece (designs that were unlimited by budget and spacial restraints), and the rest of us went with renowned interactive performance creator Jeff Wirth. The session with Mr. Wirth was particularly fascinating. We began with some basic warm-ups to get to know each other, and then turned to the playwright for a further discussion. This discussion resulted in three sentences spoken by/describing a particular character in the play, sentences we then used to spark semi-ritualistic performance/stimuli pieces around the blind-folded Ms. Donaghy in an attempt to soak her in physical and vocal prods that would hopefully yield insights and imagery as she sought to cultivate a clearer sense of this character. The actual process was challenging and surreal for everyone involved, but it also produced some wonderful material for the playwright. We then reconvened with the designers to get a look at their work – all of which was breathtaking – and concluded with some discussion about the process and how it helped the playwright to have such intensive artistic engagement in a development process from people with different roles/backgrounds.
All in all, it was a fantastic way to start off the conference. Coming up next: the first meeting with the full production team for Our Man in Tashkent and the beginning of what I hope will be a challenging yet fulfilling process.