Magic

In the draft of the script that currently stands (and will be read publically on Monday night, December 5, 2011, at 8pm in the Thrust Theatre for those who are interested!) there’s a quote that I have found particularly meaningful, and I think my cohorts have become rather attached to it, as well. It’s from a blog called “A Fan for All Seasons,” posted October 22, 2010. We’re using a cutting of it in the script, but for your reading pleasure, here’s the whole thing:

"To commit to a side is to be a fan; to be a fan is noble. Sports are an escape for us but also an anchor. We live through our athletes, we share their pain and their gain. Professional and Olympic sports are grown men or women getting paid (or getting sponsorships) to do what they love in

format where they are constantly tested against others who grew up being ‘The Best’. To witness someone struggle and fall, only to lift themselves back up and attain the sweet reward, that is why we watch, that is why it is compelling. It is real. It’s not a movie. It is us. That’s someone’s son, someone’s dad, someone’s brother. For the sports fan an image can stay with us like a loved one, like a memory of something beautiful that can never fully be replicated. In that moment you feel you’ve almost become that person’s family and you grieve and you hope and you celebrate as if nothing else mattered. Sport satisfies our need to hope, to feel there is something pure, like the image of arms hoisting the trophy, the winner kissing their sweetheart, the loser screaming into the grass, the goat weeping into two hands, or the veteran waving to the crowd as he exists his last game. In an era of text messages and pop-up ads, it’s good to FEEL something. In the end, we're all kids. It's not just about being in a packed stadium rocking the foundation with sound. It's about looking at an empty stadium and feeling hope."

            Reading over this again, even having read it fifty times already, it gives me a strange sort of clean feeling, like the calm before the storm. It’s the same feeling I get before I walk onstage opening night, or before I enter the cemetery at a funeral. It’s a feeling of anticipation and readiness and a certain amount of confidence that I know I have the strength to do what has to be done. It’s funny to me that words from some strangers blog about sports could give me that feeling. I wonder if it does the same thing for other people?

            I also wonder if theatre can do this for people - if an image from a show can stay with a person “like a loved one.” When we, as spectators, look at an empty stage, what do we feel? Do we hold the actors onstage dear to our hearts? Do we rejoice in their triumph and despair in their downfall - or, are we smug in their defeat, complacent when they do well? Does an empty stage fill a modern audience with anxiety and dread?

            Certainly, it’s different for everyone. Speaking for myself, an empty stage is, and for my entire life has been, something magical. I remember walking onto the stage at the Grand Ole Opry a few years ago, the stage at the New Amsterdam in New York City, and Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. I remember working my way through the mysterious underbelly of the Drury Lane theater in London. I remember the first time I set foot onto my high school’s stage, my elementary school’s oversized platform, my church’s altar... every time, everywhere, it’s been that same magical feeling - that sense of the calm before the storm. It’s like a sixth sense comes alive and reacts to an unseen current of energy in the air.

            Does everyone get to experience that feeling? Does everyone have that little touch of magic in their lives - that feeling that anything is possible? I hope so. I can’t imagine how dull my life would be without it.

-Lauren

A Little Psychology for Ya

Hello, there!

MUCH earlier in the semester, we all created research presentations on different aspects of the sports world - economics, social class, rivalries, etc. My presentation was on the psychology of the sports fan. We seem to be coming back to some of these topics fairly readily in the script, and so I thought it would be a good idea to explain a little more just what we’re talking about.

Let’s start with some science words. (Have you had your coffee yet? Good!)

There’s a certain aspect of neurology associated with fandom (not just of sports, but of anything, really) involving something called the mesolimbic system - which, basically, functions as a link between the opiodergic system and the dopaminergic systerm.

The opiodergic system controls our enjoyment of external stimuli. (Notice the root is similar to the word opiate, opium, etc?) When you really like something, it’s because these little things called opiods are finding lots of opiod receptors in your brain and latching on, creating a pleasant chemical reaction.

The dopaminergic system governs our want-to function. We receive a certain stimuli (like the smell of fresh cookies) which we’ve learned to associate with another stimuli ( the taste of fresh cookies) and, therefore, we are drawn toward that stimuli (or, pushed away, if the association was unpleasant.) This is the part of the brain that make Pavlovian conditioning (remember the dogs and the bell?) possible.

Combined, these two systems make up the mesolimbic system, which evolved to drive us toward things like food and sex, but other stuff sometimes gets caught up by it. When someone is a REALLY big fan of something, it’s because their opiodergic (liking) response is spilling over and causing a big reaction in their dopaminergic (wanting) center.

Another funny little brain function that contributes to fandom is something called a mirror neuron. A mirror neuron is partly responsible for our ability to sympathize with others, because it gives us the ability to put ourselves in someone else’s shoes. Have you ever read a book and imagined yourself as the main character? You can thank your mirror neurons for that. Have you ever caught yourself behaving like that character in real life (maybe pretending your pencil is a magic wand, or quoting a line of dialogue in the context of your everyday speech?) You can thank your mirror neurons for that. A sports fan’s mirror neurons allow that fan to put him/herself in the place of their favourite athlete, sometimes so much so that they feel wins, losses, and good and bad plays as keenly as if they were actually a part of the game!

            Finally, I’d like to talk a little about testosterone. You’re probably familiar with this as the “male” hormone, which contributes to things like aggression, sex drive, and the growth of body hair. You’d be correct, but don’t forget that, just like estrogen, testosterone is present in both sexes. It may seem like a no-brainer that people watching a sporting event experience elevated levels of testosterone... but it may surprise you that this surge follows the same pattern as male animals in the wild fighting over a potential mate. That’s right - watching sports makes you horny (IF you’re a fan.) The more you identify with a team, the hornier their success with make you. In fact, studies have shown that the level of arousal experienced by an avid fan watching their team win was comparable to that same fan being shown erotic images!

That’s all for now - catch you on the flip side.

-Lauren

Design Statement #1

I’m double dipping a little with this blog post and going back to the idea of what our villain should look like. Each of us has been asked to create a design statement for the show, and for mine, I’d like to focus on the honchos and minions of Big Sweetie’s Super Fried Sugar Burgers with extra Lard Balls (tm).

A design professor of mine used to have us start any design project by thinking about the element in question in terms of the five senses (sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste.) In terms of the Big Sweetie company, I think it would...

Look like a lot of fun! A Big Sweetie associate always has a smile on their face (even if that smile is slightly evocative of the cat who got the canary...) and each Big Sweetie store is flashy and bold, to catch your attention as you pass it on the highway.

Sound like the music of an ice cream truck, or carnival music... on the surface, it seems innocent and wholesome enough, but after a while becomes sinister and creepy.

Feel greasy. I made myself a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches over the break, and when I was done I noticed that my face, which had been bent over the stove, felt like it hadn’t been washed in days. My hands felt this way, too. Big Sweetie’s would feel like the inside of a bag of microwave popcorn... gross, but not so much that it stops you from reaching for more.

Smell delicious... for a while. When you first walk in the store, you would smell things like fresh baked breads and pies, savory meats and sweet, sugary drinks. After a while, however, that sweet smell would take on a sickly quality... like a baby’s spit-up. From spending all day in this environment, a Big Sweetie’s associate would reek of that too-sweet-sick smell.

Taste delicious... the Big Sweetie’s Super Fried Sugar Burger is just the right balance of sugary sweetness and savory meatiness. After a while, however, the thought of taking even one more bite is sickening.

The five-senses work through helps me come up with images true to the world of the play and the world of the character. The representatives of Big Sweetie’s, then, whether present on stage or represented in commercials, should have the innocent, clean-cut look of a 1950s soda jerk - paper triangle hat, pink striped shirt, bow tie and a white apron. The evil “tell” would be evident in the makeup design - the hair should be greasy and dirty under the hat, the skin an unhealthy yellow-green color, perhaps even acne-like patches of rotting skin on the face, and sunken, dull, corpse-like eyes. The Boss’s costume design could incorporate some of those same wholesome 1950s-style elements, just bumped up the social ladder: keeping the pink striped shirt and bowtie, but put on a suit jacket instead of an apron. The makeup design would be essentially the same, but I would like to see the eyes of the Boss even more drastically sunken and hollow, rimmed in reds, with puffy purple-green bags underneath. I also am fond of the image of the Boss smoking a cigar or a pipe, but in keeping with that faux-innocence, it could be a bubblegum cigar or a bubble pipe.

- Lauren

Bad Guys

In our most recent session, the Tuesday before Turkey Day break, the question was raised about how we should represent the “bad guys” in our story - The Big Sweetie’s Deep Fried Sugar Burgers with extra Lard Balls (tm.) I’ve been letting this idea bounce around in my head over this holiday weekend - a good one for thinking about junk food, at that!

            I don’t own a television, so needless to say I watch a LOT of TV when I’m home at my parents’ house, and I’ve been paying attention to food and candy commercials recently. I’ve notices a few common threads:

            Primary Colors. The color scheme in almost all the food and candy commercials I’ve seen over the break use your basic 8 Crayola colors. They’re bright, happy, warm, and inviting.

            Childhood. It’s a no-brainer that holiday candy commercials would feature children, considering Moms and Dads are getting ready for Saint Nick to fill up stockings with melt-y gooey goodness in just a few weeks - but even restaurant commercials either directly depict or make references to childhood. Consider, if you will, the Burger King commercial where the dude is ashamed to eat a Whopper because of his really tiny hands. Where is he talking to his buddy? A playground! I suppose this makes sense. When we were children, we were constantly encouraged to eat. At my house, a clean plate was rewarded with all sorts of wonderful things - dessert, a trip to the movies, the doll I’d been begging for, and on and on. As adults, we’re encouraged to WATCH WHAT WE EAT!!! Count carbs and calories, diet, exercise, worry about what certain foods will to to our cholesterol and acid reflux - there’s no reward in eating as an adult. Maybe that’s why these commercials are always triggering that memory of mom telling us to clean our plates - they want to remind us of what it flt like when eating anything at all was rewarded.

            Slogans. True, every company these days has a slogan or a jingle... but I would bet good money that the most memorable ones have something to do with food. For one thing, they’re super short - two or three words, tops. The words themselves are short, and upwardly inflected. Not to mention, these slogans get reinforced with FOOD - the thought of food while watching TV, or actual food in the store.

            Deals - Again, many companies advertise deals and specials... I’m thinking specifically of “value meal” commercials. It’s like there’s a competition to see who can stuff the most fatty food into the public for the least amount of money.

Keeping that in mind, what should our “bad guy” look like? Someone mentioned the McDonald’s Hamburglar character, another suggested a corporate fat cat... things to think about. 

-Lauren

Warm Fuzzies

Hello, all! Sorry that I’ve been MIA, but I’m back!

Working on this script has been a wonderful experience. Honestly, when we were first getting started, I had a few reservations about what it would be like to work together on a piece like this. I’ve done a bit of playwriting before, but I’ve never collaborated on a script. Ever. I was nervous about my own ability to give and take on ideas and dialogue - would I become too married to my own work that I couldn’t allow the others to give input? Would my vision for the project become so strong in my head that I’d get a playwright’s version of tunnel vision? Of course, once I realized I was susceptible to this problem, I was worried my cohorts would be, as well. Yikes!

Thankfully, and knocking on cosmic wood, here, that hasn’t happened yet. We haven’t fought about ideas yet, or what should and shouldn’t go in the script. As it turns out, we’re making a really great team! I always look forwarded to devising with these folks. I get the sense that we’re pretty much on the same page regarding what we want to see happen, and lemme tell ya, that’s rare. Think about it: How often have you been put into a group of five for a project for English or Biology, and by the end of one week, you were ready to kill your partners? Or, perhaps, you were like me in school - once the other kids found out that you actually cared about your grades, AND you were smart, you got stuck doing all the work! I’m just so thankful that’s not happening. Shout out of love to my classmates!!

-Lauren

What's Funny?

Ever since we decided on our targeted communities, I’ve been thinking about our target audience. Who should enjoy this play the most? Obviously we want everyone who sees this to love it, but there are definitely people we should focus on. Theater and sports are pretty broad categories, but I want people associated with those areas to experience this play on higher level than other audience members. Even though I generally frown on this, I feel like this is the sort of thing where we can include a bunch of inside jokes that our communities will immediately understand. I think one of the Cornerstone readings discusses this too, but since we are righting this play about, for and through these community members, I feel like it’s only natural that they enjoy this even more than the general public.

At this point, most of the script is completed and we have a good idea of what we’re doing. But as we refine and edit our play, I want us to plug in some more references for sports and theatre people. We already have some: “We can’t split up; this isn’t a Solo Command Performance,” the acting warm-ups, Bradyman, etc. But I feel like we can do a lot more. A lot of ideas have come up in our improv sessions and we really just need to sit down and work them in.

But, that also brings up the point that we don’t want there to be so many inside jokes that anyone on the outside is lost and confused. There’s definitely a distinct balance, but I feel like a lot of the sports-themed references could reach more people than the theatre ones. Maybe we can get community members involved in picking these inside jokes, helping us know what seems funny to them in what situation? They might even be able to generate some ideas of their own that we can work in.

Design Proposal

1. Forum

I’ve thought a lot about making the stage floor look like the “stage” of some sporting event. There are a lot to choose from: basketball, football, soccer, baseball, tennis, track and field, etc, but I don’t want necessarily to single out one sport over the other. That is why I propose our floor be a combination sports floors. Like a basketball court that has a double border (like tennis); it should also have lines running horizontally like in football, and those lines should be delineated by yards. I’d also like to see the three-point semicircle turned into the rectangle that is around the goal in soccer. If we could find a way to turn the half-court circle into the boundaries of shot-put, that would be great too. In terms of a backdrop, I think we are all agreed that we need to have a giant chalk board, but I would love it if it were the skyline of Louisville. Or maybe a “skyline” of the University of Louisville? Either way, I’d also like steps leading up to a platform where the scout can draw the door, it opens, the scout enters, it closes, and the scout escapes down stairs behind the chalk board backdrop.
Budget: 30fl oz of Rustoleum Specialty Chalk Board Paint: $11.90 from Sears

I figured we would need 3-5 cans.

For painting lines on the “field” we can find very cheap white paint at The Home Depot - $12.97 for a gallon of tintable white paint.

I’m not sure about how much lumber costs.

2. Facsimilies

I’d love for each realm to use UofL signage and icons pertaining to the particular sport(s) being played. For example, maybe the Sex, Pleasure, Fun realm could take place at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium (and have all the signage, slogans, jumbo-trons, fonts, etc., associated with it) since this is where Tom Brady, the football superhero shows up. I’d also love to see a slide show of mascots when the mascot tells his/her origin story. Most if not all of the audience member will recognize these images of previous incarnations of our mascot, and should relate to them.

3. Folk

In terms of reflecting local culture, I think it is important to remind the audience about Louisville with things like, “keep Louisville weird,” The Kentucky Derby (and its associated events, e.g. Thunder Over Louisville, The Great Balloon Glow/Race, The Pegasus Parade, etc), Lebowski Fest, Kentucky Shakes (which would be über-easy to incorporate), the Pride Festvities, St. James Court Art Show, The Louisville Slugger Museum, ear-X-tacy, etc… I’m not exactly sure how to incorporate any of these just yet. It will require some class discussion and collaboration. This may be a part of the facsimilies, or it could be as easy as adding the names of some of these events to the clothing we wear.

4. Found

I would love, love, love it if we could ask our interviewees for their own sports memorabilia (i.e. jerseys, gloves, hats, cleats, bats, balls, etc) and frame them. Then we can hang them on the walls of the thrust as if they were the sports heroes of the hall of fame, or of those athletes hanging on the walls of arenas. Maybe we could get a hold of their trophies (including real trophies for accomplishments, and mental trophies like leg braces, splints, etc).

5. Fabrication

I’m not sure if we can actually get those people of the sports community to make some of our props, costumes, or set decorations, but if we could, that would be awesome. Perhaps we could invite them to help build the set, as long as Charles would be okay with that? Or maybe spend an afternoon/evening helping us paint?

6. Costumes

I think that our costumes need to be as realistic as possible. Yes, this play is a fantasy, but it needs to be real. I’m thinking jerseys, uniforms, and then everyday street clothes. I don’t think it would be too hard to find this stuff cheap, as well as creating it cheap. Also, in order to keep things inexpensive, we could just use small props to create the illusion of characters. We need cheerleaders? Dress them in black, slap a “letterman’s jacket insignia” across their chest, and give them pom-poms. Boom. Cheerleaders. Same thing for coaches or even referees, unless we want the mascot to be the only ref. Just give them a whistle, a clipboard, and a hat.