Director's Notebook (more research and ideas!)

For this past week, I continued to research and create theoretical designs for The Rivals. I was able to do most of the work required for the Director's notebook, including costumes, set design, character motivations, through line and blocking.

For the costumes, I decided to use images to illustrate what I envision and for general reference. At first, I had difficulty in finding what I wanted and I was worried about it being historically accurate. In the end, I chose clothing that was traditional for the upper class at the time.

Set design became something that I was interested in for this show. I ended up choosing a thrust stage, to have the immersive effect of an arena, and the ability to have a consistent background such as that with a proscenium stage. I also took pictures of country houses in England that were constructed in the 18th century as a reference to the style and ambiance that I want the set to have.

I also analyzed the scene itself by deconstructing it through the characters and the way the scene is divided. Below are the motivations I identified for the characters in the scene:

Captain Absolute - he does not want to give out any sign that he is Beverly, even if it means criticizing his own character.

Mrs. Malaprop - Wants to show the threat of Beverly’s relationship with Lydia, in order to make sure that Lydia does not live a life of illusions.

The method of separating the scene into beats was difficult for me at first, due to my lack of experience in it. But in the end, I was able to find moments where the scene changes, which showed me the flow of the dialogue and how the characters interact. One of my main observations was that Mrs. Malaprop controlled the conversation, while Absolute mostly reacted to the topic of conversation.

Next week, I want to continue finalizing my ideas and we hope to have everyone block their scenes. I have a preliminary idea of the blocking for my scene, but I anticipate that I will have to change some of those, once it comes to actually see the scene be acted out in real life.