Claire 30-40 - amnesiac

Richard 30-40, Claire’s husband – running from shady past

Kenny 18, Claire/Limping Man’s son – dyslexic, pot-smoker

Limping Man (Phillip) 30-40, Claire’s ex – disfigured, limp, lisp, violent

Gertie 60, Claire’s mom – aphasic

Heidi 30-40, Phillip’s girlfriend – fake cop

Millet 30-40, Philip’s “cell-mate” – uses puppet to speak truth

ACT I

Scene one – Claire/Richard’s Bedroom

Scene two – Limping Man’s car

Scene three – Gertie’s kitchen

Scene four – Richard’s car

Scene five – Gertie’s basement

Scene six – Richard’s car

Scene seven – Gertie’s kitchen

*Intermission

ACT II

Scene one – Gertie’s Kitchen

Scene two – Gertie’s Basement

Scene three – Gertie’s kitchen

Scene four – Richard’s car

Those flashes of memory that hint at another life

That reminds me of…

I think I’ve been here…

Am I remembering a dream or real life?

When Claire awakes muddled the audience experiences this as well. Perhaps lighting becomes more focused as she does.

Mental sounds and images are CLOSE to the audience – I want the audience to feel as though they are having these flashbacks. Sound – I’d like to move the speakers as close to the audience’s ears as possible so it feels like the sounds are in our head. I want lights to go a little screwy when Claire has her episodes, but no one else will notice.

Bright/Cartoony feel underscored by darkness. The cheeriness Richard and Philip try to impose on her is a thin veil over the pain and ugliness she’s endured.

Closer to the action = More real

At the “edges” there is confusion, darkness,

menace

Set, lighting, music is less

familiar just outside

Claire’s immediate

attention

Fuddy Meers

=

Funny Mirrors

Funhouse / Menacing

DARK RIDE

Haunted House at Knoebel’s Grove

Click link below slideshow

to see video

Mechanical movement - Objects, set pieces, scenery moving into place very artificially.

The feeling of a RIDE – Claire (and the audience) is being guided through a journey

Memory response in audience of ride devices (lap bars, strobe lights, etc.)

Levels - I want the kitchen and basement to be at different levels with stairs that clearly connect them

NO literally frightening elements - no ghosts, goblins, etc

NO carnival/fun house set – This play takes place in REAL places. It merely FEELS as scary and menacing as a carnival ride to Claire.

NO circus designs – I don’t want circus tent patterns on the wall paper or clowns on sweaters, but I do like lifting the “darkened” primary colors from the funhouse palette

COLORS, the dark encroaching at the edges, the lines(but not the stripes)

Colors

Familiar made

strange

Angle

Bright kitchen

Strange angles

The curves in the

kettles

Curves in moldings and window frames

Contrast to the bright kitchen – behind the bright there is darkness

Piles of memorabilia – the wreckage of their lives

Angles of the light indicates the basement as underground

Use cars to indicate “ride” feel to audience.

Most direct allusion to carnival

LAP –BARS!!

Wallpaper patterns should look ridiculously cheery –

like they are trying to hard!

Sunlight in the opening scene should convey “a scary cheerfulness”

Puppet should look like a “church

puppet” to make its foul mouth funnier!

The puppet is another opportunity to

veer from realism. Puppet’s skin color and features another chance to convey

grotesque distortion.

The familiar made strange

(See below to play music)