Preliminary Blocking Notes

Very little movement should take place:

Gala enters from upstage door. Pygmal gets from chair and goes center stage to join Gala

Apart from this movement at the beginning of the scene, the actors should stay put throughout the play. This represents the rigidity of my metaphor. Even at the end of the scene, the lights will fade out, but the actors will stay put.

Rehearsal Plan

Rehearsals will be 2 hours long everyday. Rehearsals will always take 15 minutes at the beginning for the warm up (each day an actor gets to chose the warm. anything from yoga to Boalian exercises).
1 month will be dedicated to play with full cast:

Ideas for Others

Scenic design:
everything in white, quadrilateral shapes, sharp edges, cloth, wood, simple

Casting:

• Gala:
• tall, robust (not skinny)
• Loud voice
• very driven
• Pygmal:
• tall, skinny
• very sincere, but also dreamy

Costumes and Props:

• Gala:
•  long red dress, bold, shows less cleavage than in image, black shoes (no heels)
• a paper letter with handwritten text
• hair loose

• Pygmal:
• red woolen pants, white shirt, red vest, formal black shoes
• small 'Lysistrata wooden penis' under pants
• not an object of comedy. discreet

Lighting Plot and Sound cues:

• very sharp bright lighting. No blackouts
• Intro music when audience is being seated; same song played after play is finished (Baroquian music)

Space and Ground Plan

A small theatre (fitting max 150 people), would perfect. The Thrust Stage and the small  venue will bring the audience very close to the actor, both physically and emotionally. Also the square shape of the stage ties into my metaphor well.

Since the play is character driven it is important the audience really is close to the characters.

Ground Plan:

Simple, so focus stays on actors

Predominant Element

Character:
Vows is a a character driven play with a secondary importance on theme. Although it would be very fitting to make the the predominant element theme; the theme being opposite gender relations. However I chose to make the predominant element character so that the audience can really visualize the roles of the male and female characters in the play. Only after the play is finish will the audience start to thinking intellectually about the meaning of the play.

Script Analysis

Where?:
In Pygmal's house, which lies in a fictional town in southern France, near Cap Ferrat. In the living room of the house.

When?:
In mid-1930s. The world just starting to recover from the Great Depression.

What?:
The play focuses on Gala (the independent mother) and Pygmal's (father) discussion of their children's marriage. In the play, Gala pays Pygmal a visit in his home and confronts him about the marriage. Only with both the parents' consent will the marriage occur. However as the scene progresses the focus strays solely to the relationship between Gala and Pygmal.

Who?:
Gala Van Der Merwe (46yrs): Mother of Vickus her son. She is a widow having lost her husband in WWI. She is very independent, strong willed, sometimes stubborn. She worries that her identity has been lost, having to focus all her time and eneryg on Vickus. She is very wealthy, her husband was a Dutch Duke and she gained all his wealth after his death. She is Basque.

Vickus Van Der Merwe (21yrs): Son of Gala. Never makes an appearance on stage. Is very handsome, but also extremely shy. Does not know how to flirt with women. His mother sometimes wonders whether he's homosexual.

Pygmal Aitor (39 yrs): Father of Adonie. Comes from a family of Basque aristocrats. Had a affair with a kitchen servant when he was younger. Left the servant, but took Adonie with him to Cap Ferrat. A romantic, but very unsociable. Shy.

Adonie Aitor (19yrs): Daughter of Pygmal. Never makes an appearance on stage. Determined, yet at the same time the 'perfect' example of a young marriageable girl. Comes of as very innocent.


Why?:
The point of Vows is to examine the relationship between males and females through stereotypical gender roles. Of course each character isn't a stereotype, but simply has characteristics of a stereotype of its sex. During the 1930s, especially among the upper classes, the role of women in society were changing drastically. Some of these issues are still relevant today as well.

Pitch

Vows is a play densely packed with emotions. It examines the complexity of gender biases and gender roles through the relationship between a woman and a man whose children are getting married. Based on F. G. Lorca's Blood Wedding, the play focuses on Gala (the independent mother) and Pygmal's (father) discussion of their children's marriage. In the play, Gala pays Pygmal a visit in his home and confronts him about the marriage.Yet the characters find themselves more concerned with their own desires. Pygmal both intimidated by and hopelessly attracted to Gala has a hard time maintaining conversation; while Gala is overly concerned that in being a mother she has lost her identity and wants nothing more than to be found interesting.

This is all packed in an exciting, fast-paced, twenty minute play. It seeks to confuse audiences. Except for the bold look of the characters, everything about the play tries to repress the dramatic tension of the script, from the blocking to the line delivery. Thus the tension in the play escapes only through the characters. The point is to present the audience with a conflict examined only through the grandiose characters. The audience will see a small blank white stage, filled with two bold, brightly dressed characters. Leaving spectators flabbergasted with little time or space to reflect on what is going on. Forcing them to reflect to what they have just been presented with only after the play is finished.

Choosing Metaphor

I initially wanted the black square to be my metaphor, but I wanted a bit more. Instead I chose this rectangle balanced on one of its right angles. I feel this rectangle represents how rigid the scene is, while also representing the gender-related tension of the scene (the rectangle is precariously balanced).

• The rectangle with the empty middle: 
• I want the play to be very uniform
• to not be flowing
• to have very little movement
• almost to the point where the play seems boring, undramatic
• The red rim:
• The drama of the scene/play is all condensed into the characters' expressions. Everything else is uniform. Yet it is still the border of a rectangle, so the expressions aren't over-dramatic (there is an attempt at realism).

The characters are trying to hide their desires to the point where these emotions are almost lost (represented by the blank space of the rectangle). Yet, their feelings come out in the form of the red rim.

Initial Impressions

• Excerpt from Blood Wedding by Frederico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936)
• play takes place in the early 20th C.
• Mother and Father discussing their children's marriage?
• Mother leading conversation
• Male vs. Female relationships
• Father has a daughter....Mother has a son; interesting the way the genders are mixed up
• Very forced dialogue
• Rigid
• Very little movement
• High tension
• Black and white
• Not very emotive, language/words over emotion

It is the turn of the century, so the status of women is changing in society. This is what I want to pursue in this project: the relationships between men and women. It seems to me, the characters in the scene are hiding what they want to express through this forced discussion of their children. The characters are trying to get around the tension in the scene by avoiding it. Perhaps the Father doesn't like how the Mother is acting superior to him (she's in charge of the scene), especially because she is a women.

Also their children both seem really interesting. The son is handsome, yet "he has never known a woman". The daughter never talks, yet "she can cut a strong cord with her teeth". Neither of them are cardboard cut outs...they have characteristics that contrast. Perhaps the son shares some of his characteristics with the Father and the daughter shares some characteristics with the Mother. Keeping in mind that it is the Father who has a daughter and the Mother who has a son.

This 2-dimensional square represents some of the themes I was first feeling