The Guardian: Pre-Audition Stuff

So, I'm not really sure what to say with these blog posts, so I'll just treat them like journal entries until further notice. This first week, I honestly did not do much brainstorming on my play. I was mostly just getting situated with things. I look forward to meeting with Will and discussing the show before auditions; I know I have a lot of ideas about the characters and the world of the play, and I'm sure he does, too. All I know for sure as of right now is that I want it to have a visual aesthetic similar to Fangorn Forest from Lord of the Rings; a dark, grimy night-time forest with little sunlight. The branches and trees should feel as though they are enclosing around the stage and the audience. For my vision, something along the lines of "nature always triumphing over man" is where I'm at now. I plan to finalize that vision soon. Once I do, I'm sure what I want for the show will start to fall into place more clearly.

I had a productive meeting with Will where we discussed a lot of elements of the characters that were important to establish before auditions. We're in agreement that the gender of every character in the show apart from Ren is irrelevant in terms of casting. Jones and Glen should both be fully voice-over roles. We also conversed a lot about Beschut's physicality and appearance; we think Beschut should have a large form but that it should also hunch over so as to make itself smaller. Beschut is very powerful, but has a child-like mind. We also made a lot of decisions about the way the world looks and feels. It's going to be very dark; I'd personally like it if the only light on-stage came from the fire somehow. The soundscape is also something I look forward to. It is going to be very deliberately mysterious and unnerving. I don't want the audience to ever really be sure that they understand exactly what Beschut is or what's happening. I want to preserve the mystery of these wilds as much as possible. I also had a very cool idea to perhaps have the stage get smaller and small between scenes; like, to have the bushes get moved closer and closer together so that the woods feel as though they are encroaching upon Ren.