Throne of Blood

Aubrey and I talked a little about Kurosawa's Throne of Blood in regards to music, and the intro of the piece. Can't find the intro on YouTube, but this bit (where the Witch first appears to "Macbeth" and "Banquo") is musically similar.

I also want to point to the Noh performance style of the Witch here and how it contrasts with the naturalism of the soldiers... creepy! This kind of separation is analogous to how I picture the Young Man / Old Man / Guardian (who are part of the myth), versus the musicians (who are of our world). If we are the congregants for this ceremony, they are the priests-- initiated into the mysteries of the ceremony, but not of it.

Goldsworthy documentary

Wanted to share this excellent Andy Goldsworthy documentary, available on YouTube. The whole thing is awesome, but if you watch 10 min starting at 54:21 there's some great highlights including stone sculptures, the hole pieces that Taibi brought in, and an amazing bit of failure.

Costume thoughts:

Proper dress as ritual dress (out of: necessity; desire to locate the exceptional in/on top of/through the everyday)
Ritual dress as mutant/disheveled proper dress (McQueen, feathers, hats/headdresses that take over)
Line between animal and animal-like
Hawk-like hair
Masks on people otherwise normally dressed
Masks as transformative
Noh masks
Gas masks (WWI)...?
Epic - Greek, Roman (Parsifal)
Drawing room/parlor -- things that go wrong, mutation, chimeras (Max Ernst's Semaine de Bonte)
Tableaux vivant 
Falconry (hunting with a falcon)
Dry, dusty old man--clouds of dust
Surrealism
Symbolism
Expressionism

Semaine de Bonte

Falcon hoods

In particular, the center mask

Design Meeting #1- 2/15/13

                                                         Some Notes

What is this play??
Stop wasting your time
A character trying to stop time
Art making as a search for immortality
Sci Fi


Words of Interest

 Ivory, Awake, Withered, Beating, Watching, Hole, Flame, Salt, Sea, Weary, Hazel, Wind, Rain, Mud, Dumb, She, Glassy, Leaves, Solitary, Boulders, Grey, Accursed, Dancers, Wander, Bird, Pierce, Hawk, Blinded  Hood, Witch, Destroy, Battle, Curse, Maddened, Shadow, Possesed, Murder, Bubbles, Cupful, Shore, Perched, Glitters, Burial Mound, Comfortable. 

When reading the play, look for visual connections. These connections become the liasons for discussions with designers--Picture Words-- From conversations with Cait in class

Other art forms/ mediums that resonate

Noh Theater

Throne of Blood

Manual Cinema, 

Goldsworthy

Mystic Paper Beasts

Silent Movies

Puppets!

Music

Function- A container for the event because it begins and ends with music, What are the musicians Rhythms? They support the story. Musicians incongruous to characters. 

Costume

What is the function of the masks and faces made to look like masks? 

Space

The space should feel immortal

A desire to perform it outside or in the concert venue of AS220, A space for ritual 

No, but really, why should we do this play?

Welcome

This is the blog for Design Group A
At the Hawk's Well  by William Butler Yeats

Dan- Director/Lights
Aubrey- Sound
Taibi-Set
Lindsay- Costumes

Yeats...bring it