Design & Dramaturgy Presentations (8/20)

Yesterday, the designers shared their concepts they've been developing all summer with us. The world of Everybody is beginning to take shape. Today, we began with considering time, death, and how those concepts are linked. What reactions take place when we remember we're living on borrowed time? How does thinking about if you were to die in one hour, or ten days, or three years affect you differently? Could living our lives while keeping in mind that we could die at any second inform how we live?

Popular responses included:

1. making sure it is made clear how we feel about others, whether positive or negative

2. dropping out of college

3. checking off new experiences we've been meaning to have

We then went over how people throughout history (concentrated to Western regions) have perceived death and how that went through shifts due to cultural changes. Pre-12th century natural resignation to death, 12th-17th century individual importance placed on one's death, 18th-19th century drama of other's death, 20th century fearful avoidance, and a possible 21st century shift we may be seeing currently of making light of death to cope.

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Later, we began looking for places in the text of Everyman where there might be tonal shifts. The first couple stations were discussed and interpreted into aural landscapes using objects around the rehearsal room, primarily percussion.

These explorations of sound are reminiscent of John Cage's work. In the video below he discusses how he appreciates sounds, silences, and how these things are being experimented with to create music. One of his most famous works, 4'33", is a musical score made up of only rests. The sounds that occur during the four minutes and thirty-three seconds, which cannot possibly be predicted, are the piece. His work also plays with audience expectations in a similar way to Everybody, in the sense that it is unclear to the audience when they are viewing a piece if what they're seeing is intentional and therefore 'real'.