At the start: Charmion is there. In that glorious yellow victorian dress, with the coat over it - but the coat is open. Things happen. Then Charmion closes the coat, and turns to walk away. That action - the closing of the coat and the turn to walk away seems to pull all the light and the illumination out of the space, causes the tent to get sucked up into the ceiling. Our eyes follow it up. It seems to get sucked up into nothingness. A small, dark hole we are left looking up into.
This distracts our attention momentarily from the world around us to the world above us. That is how we make the next action happen.
A contrary thought: The coat - what if the world is actually taking place inside the coat? Charmion, looking down on us, is the size of an elephant.
4 comments:
I love both of these ideas. . . Charmion is the light, or perhaps is OUR elephant. But why does she leave? What sucks everything into the black hole? Why is it her time to go, and why does she leave her coat full of stories? Also, as we have talked about her coming back into the show at a few moments, what brings her back?
As for the world happening inside the coat. . . This is something to explore. What if we see some of the stories inside Charmion's coat? What if tent flies away into darkness, the audience watches it go up, and as they return their sites down to the ground, Charmion's coat is all that's left, crumpled on the floor. . . perhaps an elephant or other puppet scene moving underneath it, only to be discovered by another member of the ensemble.
More thoughts on this a bit later.
This is great pushing of the envelope! I am trying to send you a piece of choreoscript that I have been working on - need to send as an email attachment and grinnell email isn't cooperating. Your comments are already changing the choreoscript - which is so fantastic and just what I have hoped for!
Seeing stories from inside the coat is very magical. And also - discoveries. What are the things that can move inside other things and then be discovered?
I'm not sure, although I think that less is more/ and or simple is better. For example, it could be a cut-out of the elephant ballet. . . what if is on one strip of paper and connected to a couple of small wooden dowels? Maybe it comes out of the floor under the coat. a few bumps under the coat... pokes maybe. Then an ensemble member could uncover the ballet.
And/or - Charmion could open the jacket that has a dancing elephant in it? Or maybe a hanging elephant? Maybe that is why she leaves, but the stories remain and entice/call to the ensemble?
love the notion of Charmion opening her coat and there is a dancing elephant in it. perhaps this "opening of coat and revealing things" is a motif that could recur. also the idea of the ballet being "uncovered"
This makes me think of magic tricks - balls under cups, things that get pulled out of sleeves, etc.
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