#I really love songs!! they give me 70% of my insps

[yuseirra]

and it took me forever to realize Don't and It's Going Down sound very similar to each other, it feels very interesting when you listen to those two songs consecutively

o<-< ohhh....

[1892]

Can you tell me more about your play? You don't have to explain it if you don't want to but I really liked it!

this is pretty general so i’m not sure what exactly to say so i’ll give some details on the production/design/process below the cut ! : ) it really means a lot that you liked it and are curious to know more about it. 

the play was written for a ten minute play festival that a theater group i’m a part of was putting on, three shows in total, and i turned in my script very very late so i was almost sure that it wouldn’t be included, but at one of our meetings the director (she’s lovely! she runs the whole group which allows teens to write/produce/direct/act/design their own shows) asked me to do a cold read with a few actors who i had chosen for the roles. i ended up recasting james, but hope was played by a good friend of mine from the get go and i think shes a great actress who did a great job! anyways. sarah really really liked my script, and said that it was exactly what she was looking for in a ten minute play. i had a separate talk with her and we decided that i would be running the show pretty independently.

i had all of the design in my head from the get go, it was really just a matter of projecting my vision and being a complete control freak about everything. i did a few more read throughs with my original cast, and decided that the james i had originally cast didn’t suit the role, so two weeks before the show started running i recast him. my boyfriend harvey ( @tasteblind ) did a really great job with the role and i’m super happy (and so so proud) with/of his performance. 

in terms of costuming, i had costuming figured out almost immediately. my knowledge of 70s fashion was limited, and james’s final outfit is suuuper different than the outfit in the promo shots. here’s some pics from the email i sent to sarah regarding the costuming: 

for hope this was my insp

and for james this was my insp

james ended up wearing a paisley high collared shirt that i bought at a vintage store for myself this summer that harvey fit into, and i wasn’t super attached to bell bottoms (i really was but we didn’t have the budget.) 

the entire set was my stuff except for the tea set which someone from the group generously let us use as a prop! all of the details are things that i personally attached to the two characters, though i’m sure most people in the audience weren’t looking too deeply into it. james looks for the meaning of life either in the communist manifesto or a collection of novels by em forster, hope has a framed photo of an illustration from twenty thousand leagues under the sea, two elizabeth barrett browning volumes and a set of acrylic paints. etc etc etc, i could go on. 

music! i just like the song walkin’ after midnight but ALSOOOOO soulmates.

lighting! james is lit blue, hope is lit with warmer colors including red and yellow tones. james’ left side is also effected by the warmer hues which. idk there’s some pretentious bull about how it reflects her effects on him which WAS what i was going for but it really sounds so pretentious talking about it. they have color palettes, theyre both wearing clothes that reflect the other person’s color palette just because i thought that would be a neat detail if someone noticed it. read into that what you will! 

in terms of directing the actual actors it was really mostly tiiiiny details about line delivery and pacing and specific beats, there was nothing too big. i think sometimes i said a few things about characterization and body language. 

all in all, it was a really great experience and it was fun to do a really extensive recap of the whole thing! i hope you enjoy and that this is kinda what you wanted :) again, i’m so so so glad that you liked it and cared enough to ask about the process. i’m hopefully producing another play this spring! (aha or two perhaps....) one of them is a one man show that’s still a work in progress and the other is just a small concept that has yet to be fleshed out completely....but....when those come to be we’ll see how it goes.