Water By The Spoonful

Unifying Vision

            WATER BY THE SPOONFUL is here to serve as a lesson to the audience members. The main goal is to tap into the audience’s sub-consciousness in order to identify with one of the primary characters and accompany them throughout their journey.  It is essential that audience members feel the emotions that drive the main characters in the story to act the way they do. We want the audience members to feel the emotional roller coaster ride while at the same time battle with the actions of their past.  

            Our lives can change drastically from one moment to the next without having any forewarning.  When carrying out our normal daily routine, a sudden call or text message can either make a person extremely happy or extremely sad.  With the use of sound and lighting it is our hope that the audience members will be engaged.

            WATER BY THE SPOONFUL taps into each individual’s inner demons. Elliot and Odessa held on to the demons of their past for far too long. These demons poisoned their lives and their relationship with each other, and they missed a good portion of their lives as a result. Therefore, we want the stage to have the look and feel of deterioration to resemble their lives. At the end of the play, the past did not matter anymore, and they moved on anyway. Thus, in the end, the stage will try to convey an optimistic feeling.

Theatrical Space

• Perfect location: Palau de la Musica Catalana
• Where: Barcelona, Spain
• Why: As evidence provided by the picture, this theatre was chosen because it provides an antique feeling mixed with modern era architecture. The stage design will be beneficial to the production as it has two levels. One can be used for the chat room purposes, while the main action happens on the bottom level of the stage.
• Target audience: Middle to late age individuals who have experience some sort of loss or tragedy.

Scenic Design

• Mama Ginny’s house: This is the place where the family gathered. The house served a central figure in community building. The sofas were covered so that they will last longer. Additionally, typical house items will be covered. This will be used to signify that problems were covered so that relationships will last longer.  Additionally, there will be remains of dead roses. This will symbolize a once lively house, however, now only dead things remain.
• Odessa’s residence: This is the place where Odessa is found when she is overdosed. Additionally, it is shown when Elliot goes to pick up Odessa’s laptop to sell it to see if he can get money for it. Overall, this will be really messy but with the area around the computer clean.
• Coffee shop: This is the place where Elliot confronts Odessa about not remembering to meet Yaz and him at the flower shop.  Odessa was at the coffe shop meeting a new member of her recovery group. Elliot asks Odessa for money to pay for the flowers; unfortunately  Odessa doesn’t have any money and as a result the drama is intensified. The coffee shop will look like a mom and shop store to symbolize Odessa’s current economic status. Not too crowded. Tables covered in stripped, cheap table covers and not fancy chairs.
• Flower shop: This is the place where Elliot and Yaz pick out the flowers for Ginny’s funeral and start reminiscing about mama Ginny’s rose garden and how it died because Elliot refused to water them.  The flower shop looks neat and organized. There will be less pretty flowers on one side and more pretty but expensive flowers on the other. There will be a large amount of flowers, similar to the picture above, as implied by the text. Additionally, there will be a counter with an unfriendly service person.

           

Costume Design

• Yaz: she is an adjunct professor at the nearby university. Thus, she will dress business casual but her hair will be slightly undone to signify her ongoing battle with getting divorce and possibly loosing her house to her ex husband. Her attire would be similar to the lady in the picture, dressy but not too professional. 
• Elliot: He will dress with the subway uniform for the beginning of the play and when he goes to the hospital to say goodbye to Ginny. At other events, he will dress with jeans and a t-shirt with a hoodie to symbolize how he has failed to grow up.
• Odessa: she will start wearing well-put outfits together but that show that they are not expensive. Throughout the play, her wardrobe will start to deteriorate and she will match less and less until the point when the climax occurs, she will be dressed extremely casually.

Lighting Design

• Mama Ginny’s house: constitute of low, dim lighting. We want to convey a meaning and feeling of sadness, despair, and death. 
• Odessa’s residence: will have minimal lighting with red undertones to convey a feeling of a struggle. One single spotlight will shine on the area around the computer, with the rest of the room in shadow.
• Coffee shop: it will have drab, gray tones on the walls which will turn into shadow as the characters in the scene begin to talk to each other. The dark walls help convey a feeling of distress. All spotlights will be in the center of the room on the speaking actors. As the scene starts to become heated, the lights on the walls will slowly start to turn into a shade of fiery red. 
• Flower shop:  it will be start with an adequate amount of light, but as the scene progresses, more and more light will fill the stage. Initially, the colors of the flowers on the walls will be hard to see, but as the story progresses, the lights will brighten more and more until the room is extremely lit. This will be done to help illustrate the fact that Elliot is starting to understand more about his life purpose.

Sound Design

• Mama Ginny’s house: sound of air moving thru an empty house in the background to aid in the portraying of solitude. The house creaks and groans to show its age. These noises will be prerecorded and looped during the scene. Each main character will be given body worn microphones.
• Odessa’s residence: Muffled noises emanating from the apartments below, above, and to the sides are prerecorded and looped. There will be slightly loud looped sounds of the computer running to emphasize the key object in the room. When Odessa overdoses; the background noise level will supplemented with a high energy, rushed, and electrifying soundtrack. Each main character will be given body worn microphones.
• Coffee shop: background noise such as doorbell ringing, people walking in, doors opening and closing. People conversing with each other and waitresses taking orders from customers.  Background noises are going to be prerecorded and looped during the scene. Each character will have their own personal microphone attached to their body.
• Flower shop:  Prerecorded background noise from a set of customers that need the florist’s attention. Prerecorded background noises coming from customers flipping of the pages of rose design books, as well as the florist cutting and preparing flower arrangements. Additionally, there will be soft store music to provide a soothing tune. Each main character will be given body worn microphones.

Picture sources

http://www.tallawahmagazine.com/2013/01/reading-room-spotlight-on-water-by.html

http://www.absolutbcn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/palau-de-la-musica.jpg

http://wednesdaysinmhd.com/2011/06/08/keep-it-local-flores-mantilla/

http://allaboutfashionstuff.blogspot.com/2012/07/business-casual-and-12-h-pants.html