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.