Today was the last day of the ensemble before we take a break for almost 3 weeks (there will be one meeting for us to check in on Monday, November 21.) It was an excellent final meeting and I used a process that I wish I had done at least a week before. Rather than have the students continue their small group pieces, which were getting us no new ideas, and were getting us, in my opinion, further from things that could actually be used in a play, we worked together. I first re-told the frame story, which I've recounted in past blogs but basically involves several tour groups of children in the modern Hagia Sophia, and an earthquake causes about 5 kids from all the groups getting stranded in the museum. Over the course of their stay they encounter 2 main characters that live in the Hagia Sophia as shadows: two artists, one responsible for the Christian art work, one responsible for the Islamic artwork. Through the night, different shadows appear recreating different moments in the history of this great building, and recreating other things that reflect the themes inherent in the building. Then, a secret is revealed: a piece of artwork is hidden in the Hagia Sophia that has never been found. It is something that these two shadow artists created together: a piece that reflects an integration of Christian and Islamic art forms--it hasn't been revealed because these artists felt the world wasn't ready for it. And the question is: is the world ready for it now?
This is the basic frame story. I then asked the ensemble to think of anything we have done over the past 2 months that they felt absolutely had to go into the play. And to list other things they wanted in the piece as I began my writing. Our list was large, but specific.
• Pulling people out of a hat in shadow (something our shadow artist, christine marie, showed us).
• A skit called: "In the name of the conquistador" that a group presented based on themes.
• Cheese jokes (background: every play I have written has a cheese joke in it--they wanted to make certain this one does as well)
• Transparent cars (again from our shadow introduction)
• A scene with people on shoulders (again from our work on themes)
• A prologue showing the Christian and Islamic artist painting together in secrecy, with great urgency, as we hear the sounds of the armies fighting in 1453. The painting has to get done now, and hidden, before it is destroyed.
• Make it a musical
• Include a character of a drunk old man
• Have the Hagia Sophia as a character/narrator.
• A commercial break in the middle of the play, at height of action.
• How to choose the 5 that get left behind ideas: tour guides ask questions that check them; have them be artists; they ate cheese last night...
• An arugement as to which cheese is better: Italian or Turkish.
• Graffiti: connect modern graffiti with viking graffiti that is in the Hagia Sophia
• The shadow artists cannot rest until their work is revealed and accepted.
• Create background stories for the 5 chosen tourists that leads to conflicts.
• In shadow work include characters from a previous play which dealt with the dream world
• An earlier piece (from our first session where students imbuded an object with sacredness) that involved the clock representing time itself.
• The conflict the fossati bros and the sultan at the time Abdul Medjid must have had by uncovering and then covering some mosaics.
• Use tableuxs
Each item involved spirited discussion and thought. Then, and this is the part I should have done earlier, and now in retrospect, should be an every other week activity through the devising process: after making our list students volunteered to take responsibility for one or more of the items, and writing anything from simple summaries, thoughts, all the way to full blown scenes, that they would email to me, so I could use them in my writing. A few hours after the session ended I received an email from a student who wrote a biography of one of the 5 young tourists trapped in the museum.
The next two weeks is about writing for me. I think this last session will be helpful, and I am anxious to see if any follow through and write up their ideas. So, a note to those following along, and to myself for next years devising project: Every few weeks have a session where we note what we have done that we feel must find its way into our piece, and get the students to take more responsibility for at least attempting to write it as a scene right then!
This is the basic frame story. I then asked the ensemble to think of anything we have done over the past 2 months that they felt absolutely had to go into the play. And to list other things they wanted in the piece as I began my writing. Our list was large, but specific.
• Pulling people out of a hat in shadow (something our shadow artist, christine marie, showed us).
• A skit called: "In the name of the conquistador" that a group presented based on themes.
• Cheese jokes (background: every play I have written has a cheese joke in it--they wanted to make certain this one does as well)
• Transparent cars (again from our shadow introduction)
• A scene with people on shoulders (again from our work on themes)
• A prologue showing the Christian and Islamic artist painting together in secrecy, with great urgency, as we hear the sounds of the armies fighting in 1453. The painting has to get done now, and hidden, before it is destroyed.
• Make it a musical
• Include a character of a drunk old man
• Have the Hagia Sophia as a character/narrator.
• A commercial break in the middle of the play, at height of action.
• How to choose the 5 that get left behind ideas: tour guides ask questions that check them; have them be artists; they ate cheese last night...
• An arugement as to which cheese is better: Italian or Turkish.
• Graffiti: connect modern graffiti with viking graffiti that is in the Hagia Sophia
• The shadow artists cannot rest until their work is revealed and accepted.
• Create background stories for the 5 chosen tourists that leads to conflicts.
• In shadow work include characters from a previous play which dealt with the dream world
• An earlier piece (from our first session where students imbuded an object with sacredness) that involved the clock representing time itself.
• The conflict the fossati bros and the sultan at the time Abdul Medjid must have had by uncovering and then covering some mosaics.
• Use tableuxs
Each item involved spirited discussion and thought. Then, and this is the part I should have done earlier, and now in retrospect, should be an every other week activity through the devising process: after making our list students volunteered to take responsibility for one or more of the items, and writing anything from simple summaries, thoughts, all the way to full blown scenes, that they would email to me, so I could use them in my writing. A few hours after the session ended I received an email from a student who wrote a biography of one of the 5 young tourists trapped in the museum.
The next two weeks is about writing for me. I think this last session will be helpful, and I am anxious to see if any follow through and write up their ideas. So, a note to those following along, and to myself for next years devising project: Every few weeks have a session where we note what we have done that we feel must find its way into our piece, and get the students to take more responsibility for at least attempting to write it as a scene right then!
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