Blogging ``Pillowman'' In The Spirit Of Gary Troup

Director Sean Leary gives away some PILLOWMAN details...

Blogging ``Pillowman'' In The Spirit Of Gary Troup
By Sean Leary

The first weekend of My Verona's ``The Pillowman'' is in the books, and the reaction has been very, very positive. Audiences have been quite receptive and impressed with the show, which obviously pleases us to no end.

I'm extremely happy with the show. I think the cast has been terrific. The performances are amazing and they've all been a real treat to work with -- consummate pros with great, laid-back attitudes and a palpable joy about the work they're doing. Honestly, these guys are the best.

Another great thing about it is that many people have stuck around after the show to discuss certain aspects of it. Our audiences have been a pretty sophisticated lot, picking up on a lot of the little nuances of the script and on the production side of things.

One of the things I loved about directing the show was the abundance of opportunities to throw subtle details into the staging that echo what's going on in the script. We may not have the space or budget to match the fireworks or massive props used in the Broadway or London productions, but there's plenty of room for the kind of theater-of-the-mind imaginative staging that works quite well in our theater's confined and intimate space.

McDonagh's stageplay is so rich with complexities that it's a director's dream to match them up with environmental cues. The kind that are going to have more of a subconscious effect on the audience. That's just one of the reasons this has been such a fun experience for me.

Since we're halfway through the show's run, with only two performances left -- 10 p.m. Friday, June 2 and 10 p.m. Saturday, June 3 at Comedy Sportz Theater, 1818 3rd Ave., Rock Island -- I thought I'd peel back the curtain a bit on some of the thoughts that went into staging ``The Pillowman.'' For those who have seen the show, consider this something like the multimedia stuff that the creators of ``Lost'' are always throwing out there to make the experience more intriguing. For those who haven't seen the show, consider this a form of enticement to get you out to one of the last two performances. If you haven't seen the show and don't want anything to be spoiled, STOP READING RIGHT HERE. Come back later on after you've seen it.

Anyway, here are SOME of the geeky little details I threw into the staging of the show...

* There are only two characters that leave the stage during the show. I won't offer the reason why, I'll let viewers figure it out or draw their own interpretations, but it's intentional that those two characters are the only ones to break free of that space.

* The characters' wardrobes are color-schemed not only to fit in or contrast against the darkness of the stage around them, but also in relation to one another and their roles in the play. The individual actors came up with their own wardrobes based on instructions in regard to color schemes and type of clothing.

* The only non-drab colors used in the show are green and red. The only other color that's used is a dirty light blue. Again, intentional. Again, I'll let you figure out why or come up with your own theory.

* Yes, that is the theme song of a famous children's show you're hearing in the background of Act One, Scene Two. It's in there to draw an ironic juxaposition to the material in the scene as well as the prior scene. And, it's also kind of a creepy gag. I thought of it the first time I read the script and never considered another song for that moment.

* The music accompanying the action in Act Three, Scene One (the ``L.J.'' sequence) is choreographed in time with the underlying soundtrack. The scene begins slow and sinister and builds in intensity with the music. Likewise, the frequency and intensity of the lighting varies in accordance with the action and music.

* Speaking of music, if you're familiar with the backstory of Kurt Cobain and the crux of many of his song's themes you've probably already figured out why I used Nirvana as the sole artist during the duration of the show.

* All of the sound effects were done by me and Scott Morschhauser, of Metrolites and Kabalas fame, in Scott's home studio. One of them (the one at the end of Act Three, Scene Two) involved a MalletKat xylophone with a programmed effect. Another (the one at the end of Act Three, Scene One) involved a crocodile skin suitcase. On the latter, in the background, if you listen in very carefully, you can hear muffled screams, which were done by Scott, standing across the room from the microphone, with his hands over his mouth.

* Also during that latter sequence, Gary Baker, our board op, is rolling the sound back and forth slowly between the speakers to create a sense of the audience being surrounded by the sound.

* The two multi-media slide sequences feature three different styles of art -- photographic, black-and-white graphic novel style and children's crayon drawings. (I provided all the illustrations.) Again, I'll let you figure out why each is used, but there are reasons for each of the styles in relation to the action taking place and in relation to where it lies in the realm of fantasy vs. reality.

* A few of the images used during the slide sequences were sampled from my graphic novel, ``Exorcising Ghosts.''

* There are a lot of subtle variations in lighting within scenes, set up in accordance with the characters on stage and the relationships between them. Certain characters are almost always seen in full, intense lighting. Others are almost never seen in full light.

* The lighting scheme, such as it is, during the Katurian monologues was inspired by the thought of him telling ghost stories at sleepaway camp.

* Originally my thoughts were that the police would have a very Aryan -- fair skin, blue eyes, light hair -- look to them and the prisoners would be darker in features. However, as casting evolved, that caprice took a distant back seat to being able to cast the high-caliber talent that we did.

* That said, there were some slight concerns about the physical dissimilarities between blonde, blue-eyed Tristan Tapscott and brunette, brown-eyed Adam Lewis when casting them as brothers. However, one of the reasons I thought the combination worked as brothers is because I was thinking of them as -- unbeknownst to the characters in the show -- step-brothers. The younger of the two characters undergoes a lengthy period of unpleasantness, shall we say, in the script. And while I was trying to come up with a rationale for that (aside from just general psychopathic tendencies by the parents) one of the things that came to mind was that the mother had been fooling around and once the baby was born, her infidelity was pretty obvious from the looks of him in comparison to the father and the other sibling. The resentment and hatred boiling over from that, and conversely the perverse desire to favor the older child, the father's child, to an extreme measure, was one of the factors leading to the treatment of the younger child. I have absolutely no idea if that was a factor in casting any of the other productions or was even a thought in the mind of the playwright, but it was a consideration for me (aside from the sheer talent of those involved) in justifying the casting.

* There is an obvious leitmotif in the show involving a prop that echos the title.

* The ``missing child'' posters handed out prior to the show as a geeky little prop feature the exact details from the script and a mug shot of the actress from the show. The format of the posters, as well as the actual 800 number and website on the flyers, is cribbed directly from the missing child posters that are sent out in mass mailings and are on display at the post office. A couple of people who attended the show the first weekend thought they were real. Nope. Please don't call the number.