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It was a slower paced day in rehearsals than it has been this week. The first half of the day we sat with Georgie to work on her monologues. Qui, one of Lush Valley’s writers, was a fabulous helping hand with Georgie’s spoken poem and rap. They’re starting to take a really exciting shape! After working on short scene between Ernie and Georgie, we focused on Ernie’s monologue before jumping into one of the final moments, “Suspicious Minds”! There are still a few kinks in the bridge to work out, but choreography is giving some very good flair to the piece!
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We finished choreographing the opening gesture dance today! After lots of collaboration this week, we have come up with a good shape for this and although changes may be made in the future, we ended in a great, comfortable spot! However, before working on the dance again we learned some songs to sing for the Battle of the Athems! Splitting our officers in two groups of four, giving each one a different song, we will present the audience with options for the Lush Valley anthem that will be voted on in the show. Finally, we had a moment with the King, learning Elvis’ “Suspicious Minds” with a Lush Vallian twist!
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We changed gears a little bit today, starting with gesture warm-ups, but we moved on to some of the full cast scenes in the script – mainly looking at them on their feet. We accomplished quite a bit, finding a good shape for the scenes. We also had a chance to choreograph the two fantasy scenes in the script, a Civil War scene between Georgie and Jason as well as a clip from THE 99 graphic novel between Kim and Miguel. It’ll be fantastic to see all the work we did today surrounded with audience members! In sync with the rest of the week, we’ve closed the day working some smaller cast scenes. We found a new flavor to the relationship between Alan and Angela, our supervisors. And for all those wondering, a Sparticist was a late 1960’s journalist for a communist paper.
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Following a similar format from yesterday, the Lush Vallians began today’s rehearsal with a refresher of our new gestures and re-worked some of the new gesture dance we were had built. We’re aiming to tap in to the emotional under belly of Lush Valley, learning not only more about the officer’s characters, but also about what Lush Valley means to us, a feeling we hope to share with the audience! After lunch, we returned to the script, focusing on the characters Miguel and Angela and the scene between them.
Another big step forward here in Lush Valley! We began an early day with a recap of our gestures from previous workshops and showed off a new serious of gestures based the words hope, invitation, potential and pride. We jumped right into choreographing a new dance and spent the majority of our time together creating an uplifting, welcoming, environment for our applicants. We started from scratch with the new gestures and a new song and the first section is really taking shape! After lunch, we spent the rest of the day focusing on the character Jason within the script. Looking forward to the rest of this week as we’ve had a very productive first couple of days back in the rehearsal room!
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Representation – Power to change – Evolving civil rights – gay marriage, changing minorities, new ideas about family, divorce
Example of person trying to get divorced for 6 yr divorce -because gay marriage in vt and straight marriage in ny
How much do you need to change in a script to express a gay couple vs straight couple Staunch republican changing his position on gay marriage Legislative passage of gay rights not popular referendum Why Morally driven national referendums don’t happen – is it still as a result of the fallout of the civil war – legislators feel more comfortable letting local communities decide rather than sending it down from on high Default on our US debt -it would have been unthinkable in the past but the schism is creating a vacuum of leadership How is it right not to raise taxes and pay for what we need? It relates to this American assumptive structure. I deserve this – entitlements – this house, vacation Tea Party – misinformed but so big and capable of serious damage Is the current state good? We are almost rock bottom and that will be the way to move to better place. Stunning the people who vote agst their own interest Pledge allegiance to the republican party why is their only two party system? How to vote? What tribe do you want to belong to? What does it mean to feel part of that tribe? How do you see yourself? I am this kind of person and they speak my language. Politics is The big game. Every time you play you are impacting the lives of millions. We live in the land where anyone can be president (as long as you are born here) You come to America to be exceptional. Today’s American dream seems to be I can be anything regardless of talent or skill. But is that accurate or a fantasy? If your philosophy is we shouldn’t interfere with each other’s rights, then Don’t get into anyone’s business. Heavy reliance on concept of competition is of utmost value – heavy emphasis on winning. Today, Competition has even moved into realms of truth and fact. Competition has good elements too – inspires hard work and creativity. Sense of individual power as opposed to group responsibility. US aspires to be a bad ass. Not Canada bad ass. If the us was a person, it seems like we started to develop a conscience and care about people (civil rights, etc) but how do reconcile that with recent efforts to keep taxes low corporations how far are we departing from that In these last 30 years No respect for elders – no love of wisdom rather celebration of new. infrastructure of roads vs mass transit -mistaken investments Progression from ownership as core value to renting No one should own it. Temporal seems to be becoming a core value now – Dan savage column about infidelity Should we accept infidelity as a natural part of a monogamous relationship – Who decides the terms of your relationship – your partner or society? What is difference btw physical bond vs emotional bond? We all seem to need to dictate others relationships because of Fear – if someone else does it, my husband will do it to me Fear based culture. Open relationship where all is agreed upon and it is happy not painful Bringing STD s to your long term partner is bad. Men propulgating the species Open marriage doesn’t work with assholes. |
We had an exciting first rehearsal today for our upcoming production of LUSH VALLEY, which premieres September 11th at HERE! We began our day with a read through of the script, which we recently spent a week workshopping at The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. After the read through, our set designer Clint Ramos gave us a tour of the set model box and showed everyone the layout of his immersive design. After lunch, we put the final scene of the script on its feet and sketched out some blocking. We spent the rest of our group rehearsal reviewing our gesture dance choreography from the work-in-progress showing we did earlier this year at Culturemart, and finished off the day working on a scene between LUSH VALLEY officers Kim and Jason. We are excited to be back in the rehearsal room with a great cast and creative team, and are looking forward to sharing our work with you in September. Stay tuned for daily updates throughout our process!
-Picket Fence, Dream of American Dream
-Is Dream Urban & Rural, living simply
-Do we have to prioritize transit strategies?
NOTES:
-Urban sophisticate folks chasing an idea of simplicity, rural people have those choices made for them because of poverty.
-Rich people have the luxury to buy land and farm and thus become neighbors
-We idealize a concept of rural, local, community then feel guilty because of luxuriating in a fantasy. Wonder what I can get locally at market,
-Meet farmer day in produce section.
-Riding the bus – seeing people of different classes. Being exposed to simpler, rougher.
-Civil service to work on farms as an idea, and everyone should spend time cleaning up city
-My film teacher instructed us to work on farms
-City living is better for earth, so what is urban paradigm, urban farming, gardening, csa’s, farmers markets, hydroponic gardening
-We’ve been obsessed that comfort, leisure is everything so farming. Going to a market didn’t make sense. We painted ourselves into a corner and now we are trying to find our way out. We changed what simple meant. 5 ingredient ice cream
-Is it fashion or is it a solution. Corporations manufacture desire, always fighting that. Naiveté as human race when given al these options suddenly technology, pesticides, etc.
-More people getting older, wanting to downsize and live with convenience of urban environment.
-American dream is based on comfort, and I think it’s wrong but don’t know why.
-Seeing 2 or 3 generation household. Again – a reversion to past ways.
-Pride about getting out, moving on discovering new life in a new place
-Picket fence, clean and well maintained, symbolic of land claim, this is mine. A good fence makes a good neighbor, lawn, close to neighbor, Norman Rockwell,
-Simplicity, not having too much, not needing a car
-In America holding things privately seems simpler than holding things communally
-Privacy is very important to us
-Communities dictating rules, like Celebration or Coral Gables, personal private property is at the core of our foundation
-Privacy is changing. Do you need a picket fence if you post everything to Facebook?
-Is Facebook the new picket fence community? Idealistic idea that internet would reduce bias. But internet also allows us to make our communities more homogenous, easy to sift through and close out what you don’t want to see. Easy to isolate oneself from who we don’t want to associate and reach across geographic boundaries to find people we share ideals with.
-Presenting a certain face to society. Feeling safe with difference. We can accept it on a bus because we are all trying to get somewhere. But in our immediate communities we are more intolerant, uncomfortable with difference. “I’m suppose to be ok with everyone’s difference and express that authentically but that’s not always the case.”
-We get pre-emptively protective – “I’m ok with you but I need the fence to make me secure with that.”
-Having less makes things easier. With more possessions life gets more complexity but bombarded by.
-Wealthy people idealize the fashion of poverty. Paying a lot of money to look like one is poor or can make do with very little. Is simplicity being appropriated by wealthy.
Filed under: American Dream, Community, Events, Images, Research, Uncategorized
Please enjoy this slideshow of photos from our workshop at The Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis!
TOPICS:
-The American dream is becoming more while becoming less”
-Is the Amercian dream dead?
-You don’t have to live in America to have the American dream
NOTES:
-Younger generation turning backs on old traditions and values—
-Melting Pot- never was? Is happening now?
-Racism? Reasons for square shot at the American dream.
-Ownership of a piece of the country
-Less ownership—less chance of the dream
-Control over your dream
-Is ownership or control the dream?
-Is the American dream being co-oped?
-Global dream?
-Freedom of speech in a general sense
-American dream not dead.
-Control discourse?
-Native American- what about them?
-A personal experience
-Inside or outside the dream?
-Freedom in the broadest definition
-Your kids having it better
-Age with dignity
LUSH VALLEY 
