Out Cold

Despite my attempts to recall what has become lost to me, I realized that I've been unable to write about anything because I've been out cold at home. Resulting from the close quarters and widespread flu at my school, I too have caught the cold and cough. When I was finally able to return to school today, it seemed as if I had been gone forever, even though I had technically only missed one day of theater. Apparently, my fellow classmates had read Lysistrata while I was absent. I believe my teacher probably gave quite an introduction and background to the piece. In investigating other aspects of theater, I believe set and costumes were essentially the focus for this particular piece we were studying. When I arrived back in the classroom today, I was pretty much lost as I had no idea of what the occurred during the plot nor who the characters even were. From the general comments of the other students, I was able to get the gist of the play which allowed us as a group to come up with a set design for Lysistrata. Considering that the show is usually adapted for different wars, we chose to utilize World War II. With that, we set the play in a munitions factory where the female costumes were inspired by the jumpsuits and bandanas we had seen with Rosie the Riveter. A conveyer belt can be seen in the background as individual work stations set up an arch facing a podium where the Commissioner supposedly speaks. In discussing our set design with our teacher, she brought up the interesting idea of having the podium rise up out of the ground on an elevator whenever needed. I think the greatest problem we struggled with was moving beyond the stage we have been so comfortable with at our school. Considering that we haven't been out and about seeing a myriad of professional productions, our idea of theatre is essentially limited. It's a work in progress, what can I say.