In response-

I definitely agree with Jeffrey- the "stuff" in this play, both physical and conceptual, is overwhelming. I believe much of it is also artificial. The colors in our images are either over-saturated or desaturated, and there is an obvious lack of natural textures (excluding water). I'm also very interested in the father's reliance on/relationship to technology, like the stereo and the television. I believe this home is one made of plastic and metal, not wood.
One thing I notice about Mother is the limits of her voice. Her thoughts only come out in a "special place" through monologue, and in dialogue with Father, she tiptoes around her meaning. Her position in the household is, to me, precarious, in addition to "trapped."
There's something sad about the way Child plays in her surroundings or makes a meal on her own. By the end, she's something of a phoenix rising, albeit somewhat burned. She's strong in her silence. I believe she sees the potential hope in every situation. I also believe the play is from her point-of-view. I would like to see her interact with the things in her home in unconventional ways. Like Father, Child has a somewhat escapist relationship with stuff. However, her relationship is more imaginative.
In response to Skye's question (well, one of them), I was initially drawn to this piece because I can see it unfold in many different ways. The language is loose enough not to tie any of us to a super-specific design from the get-go, which is really fun.

Keep talkin...

Great, we're off to a good start. Overwhelming, oppressive, trapped...all good adjectives, and definitely very present in the script, but let's dig a little deeper...

Are there times when the oppressive qualities of the script become too much? How oppressed do we want the audience to feel? How much of this oppression comes from the actors/the words and how much comes from the design (the space, the physical presence of the play)?

What are some other adjectives that come to mind in relation to the play? Clearly the Father is a very oppressive force, but what about the Child and the Mother...how do they make you feel?

If you could pin-point the one thing that initially drew you to this piece artistically, what would that be? What makes you want to be working on this project? Why is it important? What do you want to convey to other people about this experience? 

I know these are really hard questions, but I feel that it's important for us to dig deep if we're going to produce something that we're all proud of. I want to push us all. 

For me this play is about presenting a life...a world...a family that is simultaneously vastly different from all other families but also very similar. I like to think that this play speaks to people about their suffering and their joys. There are glimmers of hope and happiness in the world of this play, like the splashes of color in our monotone images.

Let's keep talkin!

Stuff I noticed

Maybe this would be better as a comment to Lizzie's images, but I figure if I write this as a bona-fide post, more people will see it. SO HERE GOES:

I keep seeing images of consumption come up again and again in our banks. I don't even mean this on any kind of metaphorical level (although we certainly all have a lot of things in our images, things you can buy, eat, throw away, burn)—but in the basic sense of getting overwhelmed by stuff. The hoarders, the underwater shots, the floods—these are all objects, but the composition of the images also reflects this aesthetic—half of our images are bleak and monochrome, but the other half are overwhelmed with color and shape. I'm getting Benito flashbacks, only the carnival has definitively turned evil.

This is all getting a little heady, even for me, but when I'm basically thinking is, this is a play with a lot of simple, clean language, with a lot of air in between everything, but there are oppressive forces everywhere. The dialogue might be simple, but the world in which the dialogue gets spoken is anything but.

I'll come back with more ideas when I have them. WOOT.

A couple images...

Hey all! Sorry for the lateness. Two words that keep coming to mind as I read the play are "overwhelmed" and "trapped". I've spent a good chunk of summer afternoons watching Hoarders (and maybe Jeffrey has, too? He has a similar photo up), and it's honestly the most overwhelming thing I can imagine. The caged bird, to me, represents the child- something small and full of potential limited by her home environment.
More images to come.