Psych Ward Macbeth: Re-loaded

Psych Ward Macbeth: Re-loaded

As part of my Costume Design Portfolio final, I did some redesigns and alterations (pun intended!!) to my "Psych Ward Macbeth" design from my first semester at Potsdam. 

Links: 

http://titanicplays.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-assignment-minimum-requirements.html

http://titanicplays.blogspot.com/2014/12/macbeth-adaption-set-design.html

http://titanicplays.blogspot.com/2014/12/macbeth-adaption-notes.html

http://titanicplays.blogspot.com/2014/12/macbeth-adaptation-timeline.html

http://titanicplays.blogspot.com/2014/12/concept-artstage-design-psych-ward.html

Aside from the costume changes (and the fact they are MUCH better drawn, I've been practicing) other notes include:

*The setting of the play, is specifically an Psych Ward in Las Vegas Nevada, specifically on Christmas eve. This allows for the Elvis impersonator/king Duncan to be handy, as well as the weird sisters being showgirls, Lady Macbeth a drag queen, as well as the faux Christmas tree/Birnam wood. Handy!!

*The Freudian archtypes have been re-cast. My professor noted that they didn't QUITE match up as originally conceived. So, to fix things I set Macbeth as ego (decision maker), Lady Macbeth as Id (Devil on shoulder) Banquo as superego (conscience) and the weird sisters as his madness. (note, I based this casting on a "Shortcut" I found on TV tropes.)

 http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UsefulNotes/IdSuperegoAndEgo

*A friend recommended that the "Shakespeare stuff" happen on an projection screen above the mad doctor's office. This is a amazing idea, as it would allow for a smaller set, and maintain the "this is all in his head" feel of the original set design. As an additional plus, it would require fewer actors, as the actors could have their Shakespeare bits pre-recorded, thus reducing/eliminating the need to cast a full set of twins/body doubles for this show.

*I decided that this production most definetly falls squarely in the "horror" genre. As such, some roles/costumes/set pieces are to be used for strictly comedic effect so that the audince is able to be scared fresh each time the mad doctor murders someone. As an additional means of following the horror genre (and also a way to guarantee minors do not attend this production and get scared witless,) the "weird sisters" now have a very, very skintastic/slutty design that has their nipples exposed. Not only does this work well with the madness/vegas theme, but it works with the "fair is foul, foul is fair" as I also made their costumes intentionally clash and have gods-awful color patters.

Without further ado, here are the new costume designs!!

A midsummer night's dream. With NINJAS!!! Pt III

A midsummer night's dream. With NINJAS!!! Pt III

by Jason Shirtz

Part I

http://titanicplays.blogspot.com/2016/03/a-midsummers-night-dream-with-ninjas.html

Part II

http://titanicplays.blogspot.com/2016/03/a-midsummer-nights-dream-with-ninjas.html

I Updated my designs for Oberon, Titania, and Puck for my Costume Design portfolio presentation. Pretty much the same story/justifications as the prior versions. New features include:

*Oberon/Jiraya now has his sword on his back. It looks better.

*Titania/Tsunade now has slug Antennae on her head. 

*Titania/Tsunade now shows more leg.

*Titania/Tsunade's design is now to make her a "genki" girl. It also is invoking the "batman and robin effect" where a dark, brooding shadow bound hero has a bright cheery, easily spotted sidekick.

*Puck/Orochimaru is pretty much the same, but better drawn, and hopefully more EVIL looking!

scene study 3/24

Getting the hang of this  monologue stuff. Also ,kim wants us off book pretty damn soon. as in april 5th. Gonna get working hard on it.

Scene Study 3/22

Scene Study 3/22

I figured out some basic prep-work for my monologues. Basically I read the whole section (multilpe times) then read the major monologues (multuplle times). I do it say 10x in a row, then try to do it off book. I rinse and repeat for every major beat/unit till i have it done. and damn. This process takes a while.

Scene study 3/17

Scene study 3/17

Realized during reading the script today. I have a ton of monologue in my scene. It's time to start prepping!

Scene Study 3/15

Scene Study 3/15

I got john 3. I was hoping to avoid any kissing scenes/initmacy, which i thought was mostly in scene 4. Apparently, there is some in here. It's less that I'm uncomfortable with doing that with scene work, and more that i'm not enthused about working with college students on that kind of thing. So much extra drama.

Scene Study 3/3

Scene Study 3/3

Kim should be putting up the doodle for us to choose our scenes too I know I want to do the last scene. There is a lot of power there, as neil labute made some changes to reference mormon temple ritual specifically.

Scene study 3/1

So kim is having us figure out our scenes soon. Hope I get a good one! I'm leaning towards wanting to do the last half, as that's where all the drama is.

Scene Study 2/25/16

Been keeping up somewhat with the tips book. It's pretty handy actually. I like how it deals with complicated actor's needs and sums it up very, very fast. as in one page. Helpful!

Scene study 2/23/16

Scene study 2/23/16

The prep work for miss julie is lagging behind slower than i expected. Ah well.

Scene Study 2/18

Scene Study 2/18

More running through miss julie. Work work work.

Scene study 2/16/16

Classes cancelled today. Damn.

Scene Study Journal 2/18/16

Looks like i'm not going to get a chance to tell the class all about my research for miss julie on neil labute. Oh well. We seem to be doing well, going to be divving up the scenes at some point soon.

Scene Study 2/16/16

Scene Study 2/16/16

More time reading "Miss Julie" I did a bunch of research on Neil Labute. He's a piece of work. I put it all together in a big folder. I have a lot of stuff on this guy, as his Mormon cultural background from when he went to BYU college def affected his work for Miss Julie. 

Scene Study journal: 2/11/16

Scene Study journal:  2/11/16

Starting on the Script for "miss julie" It's been placed in 1929 by neil labute. As an assignment I agreed to do some research on the playwright. Apparently, he was mormon at some point. sounds right up my alley.

Scene Study Journal 2/9/16

Scene Study Journal 2/9/16

Performed "Top Secret" with mimi today. wasn't entirely happy with the results, as my blocking was choppy, but overall I put some nice thought into it, and made some process. A big thing that i did to make it work better, was use meditative technique to create some "prior state" emotions for my character. Seemed to help. I also focused on large, obvious physicality for my character's emotions, and tried to work with mimi's characters suggestions. I wish we had had more time to work on the blocking though. Didn't have nearly enough time for that.