Video | It's Jewdy's Show Audience Reactions

A new addition to our blog posts, audience reactions to the shows. Here's It's Jewdy's Show!

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Video | Forum Actor, Chris Fitzgerald

Check out this video interview with Forum Actor, Chris Fitzgerald

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Video | Forum Director, Jess Stone

Check out this video interview with Forum Director, Jess Stone.

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Dramaturgy | Snapshot: Rome 200 BCE

by Rachel Lerner-Ley, Dramaturg

City of Rome: At this point in time, Rome is over 500 years old. The city sits along the Tiber River and contains the famous 7 hills on which sit the homes of the elite, temples, and government buildings. Streets are paved with raised stones. Living quarters are made of stone and are either 1-2 story private houses or multi-level apartment buildings. Oftentimes, the ground floor is occupied by a store. These stores pour out onto the streets, which are filled with people selling their wares. There are no street numbers so you have to rely on description to find a residence.  The forum is the center of the city, home to religious and government institutions as well as large open air market.  Aqueducts—at this point mainly underground—deliver water to the city, allowing for many fountains and bath houses. Like any city, graffiti of all sorts appears on buildings.

Slavery and Prostitution: Slaves are ubiquitous. Almost every household, rich and poor, has at least one slave (some estimate that the ratio of free to slave was 1:3 by the end of the republic!). Slaves are typically former prisoners of war that were sold at markets held in the forum.  Children of slaves automatically became slaves.  Slaves could buy their freedom by saving up the small allowance doled out by their master or could be granted it by their master as a reward for good service. Slave-owning is a status symbol, and so many ex-slaves go on to purchase slaves of their own. Slaves wear brown tunics made of coarse fabric. Like slavery, prostitution is accepted as a necessary social institution with its own set of laws (social and governmental). Prostitutes are of the lowest social order.

Father Knows Best: The Roman family is dictated by the notion of patria potestas. The father has complete control over all members and aspects of his family: wife, children, children-in-law, grandchildren, slaves, and property. A father may emancipate his son, allowing him to become the paterfamilias of his own family.

Midlife Crisis at 20? Average female life expectancy is 34. Average male life expectancy is 46.5.

Marriage: Girls are married off between the ages of 12 and 14. Their future husbands can be as young as 14 and as old as…well, there’s no upper limit. The girl is given away by her father with a dowry that can be returned if there is divorce. The marriage is a signed contract, and weddings include feasts and processions. An important custom: the groom must carry the bride over the threshold of their home.

Drink up!: Wine is the beverage of choice for everyone and is served at almost all meals.  A typical dinner for Romans is an egg dish served with sweet wine followed by a main entrée (usually fish or poultry) served with wine. Dessert is fruit served with—you guessed it—wine!

TOGA! TOGA! Men wear knee length white tunics covered by white togas. If a man holds a position of power, he has a purple stripe along his tunic and toga. Women wear long white tunics with sleeves. Over the tunics, they wear a stola: a draped dress dyed in a solid color. Togas are always worn in public; not necessarily worn in the home. Sandals are casual, at-home wear; shoes are outdoor, proper attire.

V’s are W’s: Latin is the language of the day. When spoken, “v” is pronounced as “w.”

Sources: Ecce Romani IA,IB,IIA,IIB. White Plains, NY: Longman Publishing Group, 1995. Hornblower, Simon and Antony Spawforth, eds. The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 3^rd edition revised. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.

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Interview | Cathy Parrott, FORUM Costume Designer

ramaturg, Rachel Lerner-Ley, sat down with A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum Costume Designer, Cathy Parrott, to discuss inspiration, collaboration, and the magic of elastic. 

Rachel Lerner-Ley: First of all, I’m so excited you have your binder with you because that was actually going to be one of my first questions.

Cathy Parrott: Oh good!

RLL: Which is: you get the FORUM script, you read it, you laugh a lot—I certainly did. And then how do you start to approach it as a costume designer?

CP: Working very closely with the director. We’re doing an all-male cast. Jess’ vision was going to be a little different than past productions. So it was really seeking out her vision and seeing where she wanted to take it. And the biggest piece of the puzzle has been figuring out the courtesans. How are we going to shape our men into women?  So it was about really nailing down the concept of the production.

Jess and I worked really close for the first month. We kept sending images back and forth to each other. We’d literally be e-mailing images everyday. Because she’s been working for months on the idea, I really wanted to pick her brain to see if there was anything that she was thinking visually even before I came on board. I wanted to jump on her bandwagon.

RLL: And what kind of sources did you use for research? Where did you start looking?

CP: We started looking online and, funny enough, I actually started looking at a lot of modern influences to inspire me and not necessarily get locked into Roman togas. We wanted to have a little bit of freedom especially with our courtesans. My first month was internet research and then I had access to the university library where I was. And the costume designer there has her own fabulous costume book library so I was able to pull images and resources from there. And send that back to Jessica.  We were able to tie all that in, from actual period garments from drawings or pictures of sculptures to modern day influences to have a slight little twist on our courtesans.

Back in New York, I went to the Met, as Jess had done a week or so before me, as they have this huge wing on Roman and Greek statues so I could see the detailing in the costumes and jewelry. It’s a wonderful primary research source which doesn’t happen most of the time. We are very lucky, to have this collection of Roman art right in our backyard.

RLL: Can you walk me through your binder?

CP: So this is my bible that I’ve been working from. (Flips to a section with sheets of measurements) So about a month and a half ago all the actors came in for body measurements and I was able to get a good sense of their height, weight, and you know every other measurement from there. Anything the shop may need as these people are making custom-made garments. (Flips to a new section with photos) Then we take body shots. We take a front view and a side view and a back view and then we take the headshots and send them off to the wig designers. (Flips to next section with sketches, photos, images) And then we came up with our research board. So for each of the characters I come up with an inspiration board through my collaboration with Jess. I’d send her an image and she’d respond negatively or positively or we’d put something together like “Oh, I really like the drape on that.”  “Let’s do the simplicity of this one.”  Then we come up with our own color palates. And color theory—in terms of what different colors mean to a modern day audience. So that’s where the magic happens.    

RLL: Now, there are so many characters in FORUM and also we’re doing it with doubling so I can imagine that there are many, many costume pieces that are flying on and off. So do you have to make charts for that? How do you keep track of it all?

CP: We do. That’s what I’m wrapping up today. I’ve been working on it for about a month. (Cathy pulls out many sheets of charts) But this is kind of the short version. It’s broken down by act and scene and then character. So here’s act one. It’s broken down by act and scene. In terms of some of the characters like Jeremy Shamos’s who’s playing Vibrata and Senex, he’s Vibrata and then several scenes later, Senex. But then at the end here you can see how he has to change…

RLL: Oh my goodness. That’s all in one scene!

CP: And then in Act 2, it’s just as crazy for him. On, off, on, off, on, off. So that’s kind of how we set-up the tracking so everybody can see it visually how many changes there are in one scene.

RLL: And how many dressers do you have working backstage on the show to help? Or is it happening on stage?

CP: All the changes happen off-stage, well most of them. So you won’t see all that. And I believe that we have 7 dressers at the moment. It’s what we were shooting for.

RLL: An army of dressers! And because there are so many fast changes happening, do you want to give our audiences a little peek into the magic that happens? Can you give me an example of how one of the fast changes works? Or would you rather keep that a secret?

CP: The magic of snap tape and zippers. (Laughter) And a little bit of underdressing. So if you see something shiny and blue underneath a costume…

Laughing

RLL: But of course they won’t be seeing any of that.

CP: Of course they won’t because we’ll have it all figured out by then!

RLL: It always just amazes me how quick changes happen.

CP: In addition to zippers and snap tape there’s a lot of elastic.

Laughter.

And that obviously wouldn’t have been the case in Ancient Rome but in order for our theatre magic to work it allows them to pull it up really quick and rip it off really fast.

RLL: Oh that’s so smart.

CP: And all their drapes are nailed at a point so all they have to do is lift their arms up, the dressers put it on, and send them on out.

RLL: And do the guys have basic costumes that are underneath everything? That everything is piled on top of?

CP: The courtesans will because of our quick changes. So everything is built off of that. And then the rest of the silhouettes are tweaked to adapt to the costumes underneath. So there are some of the base costumes that have some shoulder decorations so we have to put a shoulder pad on the side of the other costumes so he doesn’t look like a hunchback.

Laughter

So there’s definitely theatre magic happening backstage. It’s not fashion. It’s not a runway show. It’s making everything functional for our actors.

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Fridays@3 | 2010

Fridays@3 is Williamstown Theatre Festival’s annual reading series presented to showcase the new works of emerging playwrights. Each Friday from July 2 – August 13, join us at the Paresky Center at 3pm to listen to these new works read aloud by Williamstown Theatre Festival actors. Admission is $5. Call the box office at 413-597-3400 for reservations.

July 2

HOW. WHAT. NOW. written and performed by Michael Warner

Directed by Campbell Scott

How. What. Now. Stories of Redemption and Hope, Killing Gophers, and how Bubble Gum Pop can save your life.

July 9

THE SUBSTANCE OF BLISS by Tony Glazer

2009 Weissberger Award Winner

In The Substance of Bliss by Tony Glazer, 2009’s L. Arnold Weissberger Award winner, a couple, Donna and Paul, wait up for their troubled son to come home. What they learn about yard fairies, neighborhood cats, the grouchy lady next door, Mrs. Johnston, their son, each other and ultimately, their relationship will change them forever.

July 16

GOOD ON PAPER by Michele Lowe

For a community service credit, 16 year-old Miles returns to the daycare center in his father’s work where he was cared for as a small boy. Even though he has never really understood why his dad left him and his mom, Miles knows it has something to do with this place, once a revolutionary program for children of working parents.  Michele Lowe’s Good On Paper asks us to question when we feel—and when we actually are—safe.

July 23

MIDNIGHT SUN by Chris Eigeman

In association with the Williamstown Film Festival

Chris Eigeman's screenplay Midnight Sun dawns on a cold morning in 1943. When Max Coleman and Jack Priest, two doctoral candidates at Columbia get selected to participate in a secret project, they drop their jazz-filled lives in New York City and move to a remote makeshift village of physicists in the desert. There they begin working on the biggest bomb ever known to mankind. But is it a glorious testimony to the capabilities of mankind and the greatest peacekeeping tool ever invented or a weapon of mass destruction?

July 30

ELEMENO PEA by Molly Smith Metzler

Directed by Amanda Charlton

When Simone invited her older sister, Devon, for a weekend at her boss’ house in Martha’s Vineyard, she never could have anticipated Devon’s reaction to the expensive luxuries which Simone enjoys daily.  Not one to get caught up in this world, Devon points to the men in “pink pants” as just one example of the outrageous values to which the Kells subscribe. Molly Smith Metzler’s Elemeno Pea explores what one must give up in order to have “everything.”

August 6

KNOCK DOWN DRAG OUT by Kyle Jarrow

Directed by John Rando

After losing his job as an accountant, Will, with much urging from his wife, Macy, digs out the old screenplay. The local drama teacher thinks it brilliant, a student of his now L.A. actress, Chloe, thinks its genius, together they will make a short to pitch to Chloe’s connections in L.A. Knock Down Drag Out by Kyle Jarrow brings the cutthroat world of Hollywood to Cleveland, OH where Macy, even though she has always wanted her husband to pursue his dreams, begins to resent the fact that everything she’s ever done, she’s done it for him.

  

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