Dramatic Appreciation Final - Ruined

         Ruined is a play by Lynn Nottage, which won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was commissioned by the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois and was a co-production with the, off-Broadway, Manhattan Theatre Club. The performance premiered in November of 2008. The play involves the dilemma of women in the civil war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo. 

         

           Time and again, we are not conscious of the way the whole theatre space or location works to create sense and circumstances for a theatrical occasion. When we attend the theatre in an elaborate opera house with luxurious lobbies and bars serving expensive drinks, we acquire certain expectations for a lush and abundant production with thorough detail and performances by stars. When we go into a unconventional theatre behind a storefront, in a warehouse, or in a church basement, we expect experimentation, incitement, and very little visual or technical elements. We measure what we see against what we expect, and make sense of a performance accordingly. With Ruined I would set up my theatre space in Congo, in a local African village, outside in the environment. This way the performance and setup would be that much more authentic. The entire community (and anyone else who traveled from a far place) would gather in front of the performing grounds with the drummers and other musicians. My target audience would be everybody from people who have lived this story and people who know almost nothing about it. The audience would most likely be Congo natives than anything else. They would come to see the play, because of the way the story ends. It would give them hope. The other part of the audience would be foreigners of the country. They would come to see the play to learn about a war that most people do not know about and learn it from a very accurate portrayal. 

 

          The actual "stage" design would include nothing, because there would be no stage. The play would be performed right on the dirt. This would help describe the country as being broken or dirtied by the means of a violent war. The audience would be seated as if they were in a thrust theatre.

          For my scenic design, the scenes in Mama Nadi's bar would include old and rundown and somewhat broken down wood walls at the back and sides of the "dirt" stage. There would be a opening with a cloth hanging over at the back and right wall to act as doorways for the hallway to the bedrooms and the outside entrance. The cloths would be torn by all the run down and drunk soldiers and natives who have piled in and out of the bar from years past. Outside the doorway of the outside entrance would be a little porch. There would be a clearly homemade pool table made of a used table top and the side guards would be made from used beer bottles. The balls would be used tennis balls and the sticks would be old table legs. This would show that there isn't much money coming into this place. There would also be a few old tables with cheep plastic lawn chairs. The bar counter would be made up of a bunch of magazines and books stacked on top of each other with a wood board placed on top of it. Cheap but it works. More lawn chairs would be placed here too.

          For scenes in the bedroom there would be two cheap spring mattresses. No beds to hold the mattresses up, not enough money for that. There would be a radio and a lamp on a nightstand between the beds. One mattress would be shared by Sophie and Salima. The other had by Josephine. This will show the audience the bond and friendship between Sophie and Salima. It will also show the social distance between them and Josephine.

          For costume design the girls (Mama Nadi, Sophie, Salima, Josephine) would be wearing sun dresses with African tribal print on them. Josephine's dress would be shorter than the others to show her overcompensation to look sexy. Christian would wear old suits, preferably Miami vice type suits to clearly show their age and the fact that they are out of style. The rebels would wear everyday clothing like tee shirts and jeans and tennis shoes, because they are practically civilians, but fighting for what they believe in. The governments soldiers would wear camouflage uniforms to show they are part of the actual military. The miners would wear dirty work clothing, preferably white too easily show how unclean their clothes are from work.

          They natural lighting of the outside would be dark because the play would be performed at night. This darkness will help amplify the sadness of the story. There would be artificial lighting for whatever circumstance is needed. When it is a bar scene the lighting would be bright, because there is usually a lot of energy and commotion going on. The wall between the bar and porch will block most of the light from the outside. This will help with the scenes where Fortune is standing outside waiting for Salima all by himself. The darkness will help portray him being alone. In the bedroom scenes the lighting would be dimmer because Sophie and Salima are usually whispering about secrets or keeping secrets and dimness to me means quiet for some reason.

          For sound design, I would not use any. I would not expect a extremely huge crowd to show up to a lesser populated area, like Congo. It would not be like doing an outside play in New York City. Also, the natural sound would add to the realism of the story. Most of the dialogue is pretty energetic so I would not worry too much about volume.

          And of course my mock play of Ruined would be extremely successful, because of all the amazing and highly expensive advertisment I would put up all around the world. It would eventually make more money than Wicked too. Haha.