31 januari 2014

Jean-Francois Millet - Is He Dead?


End of Act 1: Millet's nemesis, Bastien Andre proposes to Millet's "twin sister" the Widow Tillou, who faints.


The Angelus: Basil Thorpe ponders purchasing "The Angelus".


The King's Arrival: The King of France, The Sultan of Turkey, and The Emperor of Russia come to ensure Millet is in the casket.


Ashcat!: Cecile Leroux accuses Bastien Andre of being "an Ashcat!".


Millet's Studio: The audience was greeted with just the black scrim lit with white light: a blank canvas. This moment is the top of the performance, where we bleed through the scrim to enter Millet's studio "through the blank canvas".


Epilogue: Whereas we began the performance with the blank canvas of black scrim representing Millet's struggles as an artist, we end with a splattered canvas inspired by his journey into and out of a ruse, then back to the arms of his beloved Marie Leroux and to his life as the artist Jean Francois Millet.

"....
This collegiate performance of "Is He Dead?" by Mark Twain, adaptation by David Ives, is a fictional piece about the artist Jean Francois Millet who finds that monetary worth is only achieved posthumously and, through the help of his friends, becomes his twin sister in order to fake his death and sell off his works.

This production centered on the idea of a 'living painting' set in the 1800's. To achieve this union of collaboration, all aspects were inspired by the 1800's masters, as well as Millet's own studio and work: the movement and direction were stylized, the costumes were period, the overall look of the scenery was derived by paintings of and exhibitions within parlors, and the lighting was inspired by the modeling present in Chiaroscuro paintings.

This sense of light vs. dark, highlight vs. shadow, and hue vs. value, were aided by the inclusion of black scrim behind which, the entirety of the play took place: the finishing touch on our living Chiaroscuro painting.
...."
(bron: World Stage Design, foto's: Andrea Bilkey)

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