The Drowsy Chaperone

I think another musical that uses a similar technique, which might be easier to understand and help with understanding The Drowsy Chaperone, is Into the Woods.  When we see the Narrator in Into the Woods we can easily compare him to the Man in The Drowsy Chaperone.  Both characters offer what appears to be commentary on a show they are not a part of.  In reality they are both characters of these musicals and not outsiders. 
The Man’s first lines are “I hate theatre.”  He goes on to explain what about modern theatre he despises in comparison to those composed in the 1920s.  The Man thoroughly primes us to appreciate whatever follows, which turns out to be one of those intricately and improbably plotted tales of love in crisis involving a wide range of characters including gangsters, show people, millionaires and servants. The cast members are bright and eager and energetic, but with a couple of exceptions they don't quite grasp what it is they're sending up.  Appropriately for an age in which self-consciousness has become as essential and expected as the element of human communication these notions are seemingly questioned in this musical.  They seem to be challenging the notion of ‘fluff’ versus strong dramatic themes. 

Show and Tell #3 - The Roaring Girl

The Roaring Girl is another example of collaborative drama from the English Renaissance era.  Here Thomas Middleton and Thomas Decker base their title character on a living person.  This is one of the first accounts extant of a theatrical depiction of a living person.  The character Moll Cutpurse is based off Mary Frith a woman notorious for dressing like a man, brawling, and theft.  There is also documented evidence that Mary Frith attended a performance of The Roaring Girl, sat on the edge of the stage, and interacted with the actors and audience.  This play was written in 1611 and first performed at the Fortune Theatre.
            In The Roaring Girl a nobleman, Sebastian, wishes to marry a woman Mary Fitzallard.  His father disapproves of the marriage due to Mary’s dowry.  Sebastian attempts to place Mary in a better view with his father by pretending to be infatuated with Moll.  His father however hires Trapdoor to pin Moll in the act of a capitol crime and thus ruin Moll.  Moll of course is not corrupted by these actions and helps the lovers unite by the end of the play.
            One of the biggest notions of this play is gender and identity.  Moll is a woman who takes up the clothing and actions of a man.  She adopts male attire deliberately and publicly.  There is an androgyny in her apparel where masculine and feminine attributes signify her nature.  The play itself devotes a considerable attention to the clothes she wears.  When she first enters the text notes that Moll wears a frieze jacket, a man’s coat, and a black safeguard, a woman’s outer shirt.  Later a tailor approaches her to discuss the clothes that she has ordered, specifically a new pair of breeches.  When Sir Alexander fears that his son wishes to marry Moll he states “I have brought up my son to marry a Dutch slop and a French doublet: a codpiece daughter.”  The visual semiotics that worked as stable codes delineating masculinity from femininity in other plays are purposefully crossed here. 
            Moll does not merely bend the rules governing apparel on the early modern stage; but she breaks them entirely.  She breaks them so thoroughly that she is defined by her deviancy.  Before she appears on the stage Moll is described as the exception to the rules governing the visual presentation of masculinity and femininity.  However all of the other characters in the play cling firmly to the visual codes governing gender that maintained in early modern drama.  Only Moll presents an exception and in doing so she fails to change the rules.  Moll is an exception to the society’s rules governing women’s behavior and dress but not a fundamental threat too the sex-gender system or the visual codes of the stage.  Although she is desired by men Moll has no sexual interest in them and refuses to ever marry.  Moll’s character strengthens the rules of the English Renaissance Era while being a deviant for the ways herself.

On the Verge

I think images that are more personal for each character instead of the obvious umbrellas and eggbeaters would make for a fun design.  For example letters and a tiara could symbolize Fanny, while Chick-lits and a camera could symbolize Alex.  Mary’s images could possibly be a honeycomb and her essays.  In addition typical hiking gear may also be incorporated since these three women are on a journey.  Objects such as rope, a compass, and a map could be intermingled with the personal items.  The central focus images should be the three journals with the ladies names on each.  The journal moments reveal private information of the characters and end each scene.  Since their position in the play is so essential it seems appropriate that they should be central to the poster. 

Personally I believe that Mr. Coffee is the spirit of Grover.  He tells Fanny that he had only met Grover once on the day he committed suicide.  He knows a great deal of personal information about Grover, which logically would not have been gleaned in one day.  It appears that Mr. Coffee knew Grover on a more personal level yet he relates that he only met Grover once on the day he died.  So it seems reasonable to assume that he is Grover’s spirit to have met him once on the day he died and to also know the abundance of personal information about Grover that he reveals.

Responses

http://lysdexic2130.blogspot.com/2013/04/glass-of-water-response.html?showComment=1365881526748#c4540273079066541555

http://lysdexic2130.blogspot.com/2013/04/noises-off-response.html?showComment=1365882043097#c1445061503269456436

http://frequentingplays.blogspot.com/2013/04/burying-child.html?showComment=1365885418121

http://korn2130.blogspot.com/2013/04/water-by-spoonful.html?showComment=1365887142919#c4163189956657544498

http://korn2130.blogspot.com/2013/04/detroit.html?showComment=1365887948831#c3500459633718040306

http://frequentingplays.blogspot.com/2013/04/detroiting.html?showComment=1365888567322

Detroit

It appears to me that Lisa D’Amour may have given her play a specific setting with the title being Detroit, but she aimed for her play to be able to inhibit any city.  This theory is not a new idea to literature dramatic or otherwise.  This concept immediately reminded me of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables.  The name of Hugo’s main character Jean ValJean is roughly translated to mean ‘any John.’  Hugo wrote his story to compel, what researchers believe was his life goal, his insistence of the inherent good and people and forgiveness even of criminals.  His point was that goodness and sorrow could happen to anyone so D’Amour’s perception of this story happening in any city and not just Detroit is very relatable.  D’Amour’s story also reminds me sharply of Scott F. Fitzgerald’s common theme of the destruction of the ‘American Dream.’  The ‘American Dream’ is frequently referred to the ideal that people, Americans, can achieve social progress and monetary comfort through personal hard work.  Although Fitzgerald’s most known work is his novel The Great Gatsby I see a more direct collation to his shorty story “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz.”  The language of D’Amour’s characters reflects those in Fitzgerald’s short story.  Even amongst the destruction of their ‘American Dream’ the characters do not seem to grasp the reality of their situation in the aftermath of the demolition of the dream and it is an outside character that struggles to help them realize the severity of their situation.  For this reason perhaps D’Amour’s reasoning for picking Detroit as her title bears meaning as it is one of the few modern examples today if the destruction of the ‘American Dream.’  The riots of Detroit began in 1967 and utterly paralyzed the city as an example of success in terms of the ‘American Dream.’  D’Amour’s story and setting note "not necessarily Detroit," reminds us that although this destruction of the 'American Dream' happened in Detroit it could happen to any city and the circumstances of these characters could happen to any person. 

Noises Off

A motif of Noises Off is the concept of order.  The characters in this play are constantly attempting to restore order to the gradual demise of their play “Nothing On.”  The characters’ attempts prove futile as the play deteriorates throughout the production process.  The cast members desperately try to maintain composure and resort to sabotaging their fellow actors resulting in a terrifying descent into hilarious chaos.  In each act, the actors’ relationships have gotten a little more complicated and their performances a little more belligerent. 
A ‘tag line’ for this play could be “There’s some perfectly rational explanation for all this.”  The characters’ attempts to restore order where there is seemingly none and just discord and escalating chaos embodies this quote from Roger.  The characters either attempt to restore the lost order or pursue antics and other personal problems.  Either way there is an explanation for all the incidents and shenanigans that occur and the build up of the destruction of the play in Act III. 

Buried Child

The way I understand Realism is that it is a truthful treatment of ordinary people involved in ordinary dilemmas of life.  In my encounters with realism I have seen a general focus on the middle class and not the lives of the poor and socially outcast.  Therefore I do not believe that Buried Child is not an example or realism.  The preface to Buried Child in the Norton Anthology of Drama explains that Shepard was exposed to Theatre of the Absurd through Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett.  Although this except states that Shepard claims he did not understand the play I believe that this greatly influenced his writing and Buried Child.  My understanding of Theatre of the Absurd as defined by Martin Esslin is a combination of Existentialism, “the only significant action and individual can take is to accept responsibility for his or her own deeds,” and avant-garde dramatic form.  The plots tend to move in circular form.  Ending in the same structure they began.  This can be seen in Buried Child where Vince mirrors Dodge.  Although I am not convinced that Buried Child is an example of Theatre of the Absurd I do believe that it has been strongly influenced by this theatrical approach.