Inspiration

Before the beginning of the semester, I was handed a copy of "The Pavilion," by Craig Wright. My intentions, at the time, were to solely find a strong monologue, but I would soon come to find that this play had the potential to be my final directing project.

The Pavilion is a powerful story about two former high school sweethearts, Peter and Kari, who reunite for the first time in twenty years at their high school reunion. However, this is not a love story. After graduation, Peter told his father that Kari was pregnant, leading his father to immediately send Peter to college. At the reunion, they battle the scars of their past and discover where fate has brought them in the present.

I was inspired to choose this piece of work because destiny and fate are ideas that have challenged us as humans and as artists since we could think. Do our actions in the past define our path in the future? To quote The Pavilion, “Are we trapped in a net of what we’ve done forever?” Craig Wright has created a world in which we can begin to dissect the intricacies of these otherworldly ideas. I want to use The Pavilion to challenge an audience to question their own destinies.

Developing a Seed and Pitch

I knew that I wanted to focus on destiny almost immediately after reading the play, but on the road to finding a seed and developing a pitch, I decided to do some research to help guide me to some ideas.

First bit of "Googleing" The Pavilion resulted with a review from The New York Times writer, Charles Isherwood, who stated, "Mr. Wright's observations about the elusive nature of contentment and the merciless tread of time are not what you would call shattering revelations, but they do qualify as plain and painful truths...[a] slowdance of sorrow and regret." This statement helped steer me to believe that this project needed to be portrayed as a simple situation without the bells and whistles of a normal production. I wanted to make apparent that the audience were bystanders listening in on a real-life conversation.

With some general ideas in my head, I went back and dug deep into different sections of the script in order to find the true message I wanted to get across in ten minutes. I kept asking myself, "What about destiny to I want to say? Is there even such a thing as destiny? Do we have free will if there's already a chosen path we're supposed to take?" The last question, in tandem with Peter's line, "[Are we] just trapped in a net of what we've done forever?" lead me to finally come up with my seed: Malleability of Destiny. I wanted to tell the audience that nothing in life is fixed; that our actions in the present may not take back or rewind our actions of the past, but they can shape our future into the fate we choose.

The next step to develop my pitch was to relate to two different movies. I thought it should resemble Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind meets The Time Machine. The themes and ideas extracted from these movies are the failure in attempts to erase your past in order to change your destiny. In Eternal Sunshine, the main character attempts to literally erase his ex-girlfriend from his memory in order to get over her and stop the painful memory. However, they end up back together even with no memory of each other. In The Time Machine, the main character goes back in time to try to stop his wife from getting killed, but, as he finds out, time is fixed, and every time he saves her from imminent death, she dies a different way. Eventually, he realizes that he cannot change anything in his past, but the future holds enormous potential for happiness. Both films display the immovability of your past and the actions you need to take to change your future.

To drive me to the design elements of the project, I attempted to find some pictures that would inspire the visual aspects.

This image helped focus the ideas of destiny (the circle), time, and the constant reiteration of the "universe" as an immovable idea. This drove me to want an empty set, and, initially, the desire for the setting of the play to be purgatory or a vacuumed space.

The next image is the epitome of my "perfect world" set.

One of the many reasons I felt like this image encapsulated the message of the design was the absolute blank slate that it represents. Peter is driving to change the universe, to have it all start over again so he can have a new beginning, and that's what this exemplifies. It drove me to the initial decision to have both actors in all blacks, which turned out to change in the end product. For a practical reason, I felt that the emptiness of this picture would provide excellent focus on the conversation, disallowing any visual distractions.

Text Analysis

(To enlarge, click picture)

Cutting Process:

As you can see, I chose an extremely large part of the script, which called for massive amounts of cuts. My process for cutting parts of the script started with eliminating the narrator's lines and information about other characters, such as Peter and Kari's friends. After the first rehearsal, I realized that something needed a drastic change. I decided that if I changed the setting of the scene to an empty theatre that Kari went to think, I could eliminate all references to outside objects such as the shooting stars. The final step was to cut anything that wasn't absolutely imperative to the dramatic action of the scene and the story I was trying to tell.

Design

My initial idea for all design elements were the barest they could possibly get. I wanted no set, all lights (including house lights) on, and blacks for costumes because I felt that the audience shouldn't feel like they're at a show. They should feel uncomfortable; the scene should start as if the audience are waiting for the house lights to go down, and, all of the sudden, they are watching two strangers talk about something intimate. I wanted to have half the audience turn to the person beside them and say, "Is this supposed to be happening?" but continue to watch because they are intrigued by the conversation. I thought I could also take it to another level by placing my actors in the audience. While the set and lighting remains the same, there were some snags along the way with costuming and placing my actors in the audience.

I wanted to begin the scene with Kari in the midst of the crowd, then Peter enters the stage to find Kari and continues to address her despite the people around. I thought it would encapsulate the "listening in on a private conversation" if one of the audience members wasn't actually an audience member. The unfortunate truth, however, is that sitting in the audience ruins a great amount of sightlines for the actor sitting down, and it disallows for versatility in movement (ex: when she leaves, stepping over audience members). To solve this problem, I tried to find the most powerful diagonals on the stage right and left audiences, which were the furthest seats on the bottom row.

As for costumes, I found that I needed to give my actors costumes that represented something along the lines of their character's attributes. This helped them "get into the shoes" of the character a little better, which most clearly aged them. The entire dynamic still needed to be simple, so I felt that a plain, conservative look would be best.

For Kari, I decided to go with a casual black dress, nothing too tight:

I felt that a dress similar to the one on the right was appropriate for a twenty year high school reunion, and it wasn't too flashy. I also added a grey sweater to the costume to add a little age.

For Peter, I felt that jeans and a button up would suffice:

I felt that the shirt and jeans to the right represented a casual outfit for a twenty year high school reunion, and it fit Peter's "psychologist" look. With the shirt tucked in and some added glasses, it all added a little age.

Blocking and Notes

Blocking

As I stated earlier, I had to make some changes to blocking because of the limitations in sightlines and movement. I established Kari in the audience preshow because I still wanted Peter to enter and talk to what appears to be an audience member. From that moment on, I used different points in the script that called for "I'm going to leave" or "Why don't you stay a minute" to pull them across the room either towards the door or to a chair. I wanted to create the feel that they were bouncing around like pinballs in an inescapable box. I felt that the audience needed to see that there were times that both of the characters could escape, but something always pulled them back in. In addition to using the last three chairs on house right and left seating, I found a moment to pull Kari to down center stage where she breaks down. This gives contrast in levels and allows Peter to take the entire stage with full focus for his destiny monologues.

Here are some pictures of the blocking:

Notes

Throughout the rehearsal, there were some important and reoccurring notes:

- Get off book

- Focus on your actions -> What are you trying to get out of this person?

- RAISE THE STAKES -> You will DIE if you don't get what you came for!

- Drive through to the end of each phrase

- Ask the question if you have one

- Pick up your cues

- Remember that there are many moments where you can build, build, build, then release

- What motivates you to speak?

- What is keeping you from leaving?

- DON'T HINGE! -> Jordan

- TOO PEDESTRIAN -> Caroline

- Where are the moments in which you change tactics to get what you want?

- What do you want?

- Why did you come here in the first place?

- No need for sounds and faces before your line -> Think and do at the same time

- Why are you motivated to sit/stand besides the fact that I told you to?

- Do you believe him/her?

- Convince her that you are right! -> Jordan

- DEFEND YOUR CASTLE -> Caroline

- YOU HAVE GREAT THINGS TO SAY, YOU JUST CHOOSE NOT TO SAY THEM!

- Stop dragging your feet -> Jordan

- What happened right before this moment?

- It's ok to use your hands, gestures can help your point -> Jordan

- JAB HIM! -> Caroline

- Where are the specific beats?

- REMEMBER: TIME, LIFE, UNIVERSE, DESTINY! -> Huge ideas, so make them huge