FINAL Ruined Blog

Unifying Vision Statement

Ruined tells the story of women who are struggling with and facing the outrages of war; the very battles of war fought on their own bodies. It tells the story of hope through the midst of havoc. Through my production I will show the immediate despair through the dark lighting and the not-so-pristine, soiled look of the props and costume. The sound will represent hope and despair through its overall mixture of major and minor chords.

Performance Location

Although these women face such a difficult life, their will for life continues, their string of hope remains. I would like that to be shown to people of all cultural backgrounds. Hope is something all humans search for, it is what gives us the willpower to live on, to strive for something more, and so I want the audiences of my play to be from all over the world. This is why I want this play to be performed in Florida. Florida is an area of great multicultural significance. People from all over the world travel to the Florida for their vacation, therefore it would be the best area for different cultures. I want my audience to be able to unite with one another through the overall search for hope these women continue to strive for. It will therefore be performed in the Orlando Convention Center, which seats thousands, and at a reasonable price. The stage will be a three quarter thrust stage.

Scenic Design 


As the audience walks through the doors and look at the stage, I want them to feel as if part of the Congo has been picked up and set right before their eyes. I want the audience to be able to feel separate from the stage because I do not want any of them to experience the violence themselves but rather to watch the play and to have sympathy for the women. I sure hope none of the audience has empathy with them because I do not want anyone to have to be put through what those women lived through. 

The main set will include a house with a continuous, desolate road on either side. The house will be open on all three sides, which will show the bar and the stage upon which Sophie sings. The back room will be seen but only lit up when there are no men there. I want everything to look very simple. The bar should be wooden and weary looking and the floor will be hard dirt. Mama Nadi spends her money trying to keep herself and her girls alive, she has standards of cleanliness--the men must be respectful, empty their weapons, and wash off before they plan to enjoy themselves, but Mama Nadi does not have any extra money to have luxurious marble countertops and wooden floors. She does the best she can with what she has.

I want the bar to be set up similar to this in terms of the blueprint basics, but of course will be nothing of the like in terms of fanciness.

The wooden furniture can look something like this, something that could have easily been made from the woods around the bar. This play occured during a war, a devastating war; what furniture Mama Nadi had would not be very decorative or gaudy.

 

                     It would be very simple.

The bar would be again, simple. To the right of this picture would be the back room, and to the left would be the entrance. In front of the bar would be the tables, chairs, and stage Sophie sings on. Like this picture, the bar would be at an angle so the audience would have a better view of the bar. I wouldn't want the few chairs and tables to block the characters. Because of this same reason, the back room to the right would be raised up on a four foot platform.




Costume Design


Christian's suit will look something like this. In the beginning it will look very old and worn and when he comes back at the end of the story it will look very new.

Sophie's outfit will look something like this, simple but pretty.

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

Josephine's dress that the diamond jeweler bought will look like this.
 








The overall look of the women's outfits will be very simple to help represent the ruinous war they are dragged through.





 

Lighting Design 


I want there to be a darkness to the whole bar. The light surrounding the bar can have a natural look to it and the bar it self will have a hazy brown darkness with streams of natural light.When the government soldiers enter on page 92 (Act II, scene vi), I want streams of natural light to shine through. As the play continues till the end, I want the light inside the bar to be the purest and the light outside to turn dark. I want the exchange of light to represent that the war has left the house of Mama Nadi. 

Sound Design


The sound will have a huge part in abstractly representing the continuous will and yearning for hope by an ever-repeating, ceaseless major chord. To represent the despair their will be dissonance among the music. I will use drumming tribal music, along with the songs Lynn Nottage wrote, and the continuously played major chord can differ between various instruments throughout the play. The cello can be used during the moments of hardship, and the flute can be used during the happier moments of the play when Mama Nadi decides to give her stone's fortune to Sophie so she can have an operation done, and when Mama decides to dance with Christian in the end.

Script Analysis: RUINED

1.      In Ruined, the major conflict is between the woman and war.

2.      The women represent hope and the war represents despair.

3.      The turning point occurs in Act II, scene vi, the end of page 92 to page 93. Up to this point the war and the despair it brought, had the upper hand. The women and the war seemed to be getting along quite well, but truly its overwhelming despair was eating the inside of each of them. In this scene war shows its face to Mama Nadi and comes with fierce brutality towards the women through the hand of Osembenga and his men. From this point on, war can no longer pretend to be at peace with the women.

4.      On page 94, as Salima enters the brutal scene, herself already wounded, stops the soldiers in their action with her “defiant” voice. 'Fortune'(maybe the name has an underlying meaning of hope for Salima), breaks through the soldiers, the war, and holds Salima. In her dying yet victorious last breath, Salima mentions “You will not fight your battles on my battle anymore.”

5.      From this moment on, the war leaves the room and 'business' is not seen anywhere. Hope won over Salima's life and despair found it wasn't welcome any longer in the house of Mama Nadi.

6.      As the despair slowly dissipated and war left her house, Mama Nadi accepted Christian's invitation (returned and back to his old self) to dance with him. The strongest character in this story, Mama Nadi who herself was ruined, accepted the dance as the song The Rare Bird played in the background. The rare bird who sang its song even though it could be killed if it was heard. The rare Parrot who strangely sat in the corner of the room with a cover on the cage in the beginning of the story was now calling to Mama. As Mama decides to dance, Lynn Nottage writes the word “Possibility”. Hope wins over the house of Mama Nadi.

7.      The women hope for peace and the war wants destruction. (Metaphorically, the destruction and despair of the women).

8.      Hope.

9.      Even through the worst of life, hope is in your midst, waiting to be picked up and held.

10.  Throughout the play the women are degraded and torn to shreds. Even though some of them are ruined, they want to live on, to strive for something more even though they may not see that hope and peace in their midst. These women hold each other up, and although they argue and steal from each other, they love each other greatly. This is seen as Mama prepares to give her whole fortune, the diamond, away for Sophie and as Josephine hugs Sophie tightly on page 84 . Despair has introduced them to each other, but hope holds them together. It is their bond. And eventually it holds the victory over the seemingly overwhelming despair of war.

Tomato Plant Girl

As a member of the audience, I stepped into the theater was surprised at the whole look and mood of the set, the three-quarter thrust stage, and the other audience members.

            I was surprised with the painted floor and the crayon-look but thought it was truly quite genius. As I walked in it felt kind of home-like and comfortable. The audience members were quietly talking amongst themselves. Bits of laughter scattered throughout the audience in a small murmur. I noticed about four children squirming around in their seats.  Most of the audience members were adults. I sat down amongst the lively audience, who had probably known each other before they met inside the theater, and waited for the play to start.

The three quarter thrust allowed the audience to see each other and respond with each other’s actions throughout the play.  The small theater space allowed the audience to feel more like a small get together and positively reacted with the set’s props, paint, and lighting to allow a very comfortable, playful, and child-like atmosphere for the children’s play. The fourth wall did not seem to be quite as thick in some of the scenes, which I think is a very wise choice when the play is geared toward children. Children love interaction. They like people to look at them when they talk.

Many different things in the room added to the overall mood of the room, such as the; painted crayon look of the set, the fact that the paint did not quite reach the audience, the bleacher-like theater seats, and the lights that only lit the set. Together, all of these different points of attention let the audience member focus mostly on the set and characters without noticing anything else around them except other audience members.

As I watched the play progress, I particularly payed attention to the children, though few, in the audience. Some children, such as my nephew, get offended easily with someone’s use of a strong intonation because they have a great empathy for the person being criticized. I was curious as to how these children would react toward the Bossy Best Friend of the play.  I noticed one girl specifically who drew very, very, close her mother, or guardian, when the Bossy Best Friend started to act up. I saw her mother (or guardian) try to console her and noticed she might have said something like “that wasn’t a very nice thing to do” when the mean girl was yelling at the nice one.

            From entrance to exit, I noticed a chatty yet subdued atmosphere amongst the audience. We laughed together but we did not become exceedingly loud. Once the play ended and I walked out of the building, I noticed the actors waiting to greet the audience. The children asked questions and wanted to have their pictures taken with them. One girl seemed to be slightly rearing away from the Bossy Best Friend of the story and inching toward the Little Girl. Overall, I was not very surprised by the audience’s reactions once I sat down, but I was surprised at the varied age group when I first entered the theater.