Summary Director's notebook - Opening A Fuzzwollop’s Frame Of Mind
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Course
Theatre
Institution
This document contains an example of a high-scoring director's notebook for the play "Opening A Fuzzwollop’s Frame Of Mind" by Daniel Evans. The mark received in the course is 7.
Director’s Notebook
(Opening A Fuzzwollop’s Frame Of Mind)
,Table of contents:
● Context of the play:
○ About The Playwright ………………………………………………………………………………………page 2
○ The Play Summary …………………………………………………………………………………………page 2
○ History of Absurdism ………………………………………………………………………………………page 2
○ Interview With The Playwright …………………….……………………………………………………….page 3
○ Key Themes In The Play /……………….……………………………………………………………………page 3
● My Artistic Vision …………..…………………………………………………………………..…………….............page 4
○ Initial Reaction ...……………………………………………………………………………………………..page 5
○ Theatre Experiences ……. …………………………………………………………………………………page 5
○ How I Imagine Certain Characters To Be Portrayed …….…………………………………………………..page 6
○ Lighting …….……………………………………………………………………………………………….page 6
○ Costume ….…………………………………………………………………………………………………page 7
○ Sound .………………………………………………………………………………………………………page 7
○ Set Design ……………………………………………………………………………………………………page 7
● My Directorial Vision And Intended Impact …………………………………………………………………………page 7
○ Overall Vision For The Play………………………………………………………………………………….page 7
○ Use Of Sound ………………………………………………………………………………………………page 8
○ Use Of Lighting ……………………………………………………………………………………………page 9
○ Character And Costume ……………………………………………………………………………………page 10
○ Staging And Set Design ……………………………………………………………………………………page 11
○ Performance Elements ………………………………………………………………………………………page 11
● The staging of the two moments of theatre ………………………………………………………………………….page 12
○ Moment 1 ………………………………………………………………………………………………….page 12
○ Dialogue, Tone of Voice, Performance Elements, Production Elements and Justification for moment 1….page 12
○ Moment 2 ………………………………………………………………………………………………….page 17
○ Dialogue, Tone of Voice, Performance Elements, Production Elements and Justification for moment 2 …page 18
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, Context of the play:
About The Playwright:
Daniel Evans is an Australian media worker who is passionate about the realms of theatre and the arts. Evans
is a graduate from the University of Technology in Queensland at the creative industry, where he received a
degree in Interdisciplinary Studies. The playwright is currently employed as the arts editor of the SCENE
magazine in Queensland, and has worked with numerous production companies across Australia
(Australianplays.org, 2021). Evans founded Queensland's performance collective The Good Room, which
connects audiences and artists together. The signature style of this collective is based on a commitment which
pushes the co-directors both to take risks and to entertain. This collective explores themes associated with
memory, desire and embarrassment; the productions are both epic and simplistic. (The good room, 2020)
Evans’ works are usually limited to both fantastical and absurdist plays; they usually feature modern myths of
unreliable futures, in which he builds worlds that are oddly familiar. These features that are found in his works
are inspired by pop culture; they drive confusion between performer and viewer. This feature is present in his
first play Opening A Fuzzwollop’s Frame Of Mind, (The Good Room, 2019) which he wrote at the age of 16.
Following this, he wrote the following plays: Never 4 Ever, Ivy Shambitt and The Sound Machine,
Spontaneous Human Combustion, I Will Kiss You In Four Places, and Oedipus Doesn't Live Here Anymore
(Playlab Theatre, 2021).
The Play Summary:
It is the story of a group of people trapped in a closed room; yet none of the characters dare or have the courage
to leave the room. A naive young girl, named Eyre, poses questions that are almost immediately answered by the ‘seemingly intelligent’
characters of the play. However, as she poses the question about what is outside the room, the characters’ claustrophobic existence is challenged.
Eventually, Eyre is the only one that discovers the unknown by leaving the room, forcing everyone to consider the limitless opportunities that
exist outside of the room (Goodreads, 2021). As seen in figure 1, the first-ever production of Opening A Fuzzwollop’s Frame of Mind was
directed by Matthew Stanford and Nicholas Williams.
History Of Absurdism:
Opening a Fuzzwollop’s Frame Of Mind is an absurdist play, containing features that drive confusion between the actor and spectator. Absurdist
plays date back to the 1950s and the early years of the 1960s (Britannica, 2020). The playwrights, Samuel Beckett, Jean Genet, and Harold Pinter
were known as the fathers of this theatrical movement: Theatre Of The Absurd. Martin Esslin used the term “absurd” to refer to the features of
this theatrical style that ignored all known theatrical conventions and followed a new path in the entirety of its structures - emotional and
philosophical (Encyclopedia.com, 2021). The theatre of absurd offers an opportunity to explore the boundary between illusion and reality, as it
pushes theatre to a limit; it poses questions regarding what reality and unreality resemble. This theatrical form was often perceived as a response
to the difficulties faced in the 20th century in which questions regarding whether life was worth living, and whether suicide was a legitimate
response to a worthless life were extremely common (King, 2019). Hence, this theatrical movement described human life as being absurd, which
is one of the main reasons why it’s themes revolve around an absence of meaning, human suffering and death. Therefore, The Theatre Of The
Absurd was perceived as more gruesome than comedic. The gruesome quality in Absurdism is related to that of surrealism - a movement that
represents the unconscious nature of post-WWI (Dickson, 2017). Both theatrical movements distort reality in regards to life and death. This
distortion was usually achieved by the utilization of farcical dialogue and incidents that would reveal this unconscious nature. The Theatre Of
The Absurd was another theatrical movement that rejected Realism. The concept of Realism was introduced as a primary theatrical movement of
the late 19th and early 20th centuries by the Norweigan playwright Henrick Ibsen. Ibsen is referred to as ‘the father of Realism,’ as his plays
contributed to a normalization of Realism in theatre. Many people disliked the way the play was performed, as back then melodramatic
techniques were more prevalent. Overtime, Ibsen gained popularity by exploring a more diverse range of topics, such as the role of religion,
family life, and the status of women. These topics often caused controversies, resulting in greater fame and popularity for Ibsen and his works.
Realism, in theatre, demands that the performance represents life as truthfully as possible and requires actors to behave as though the play is
occurring in real-time (Visitnorway.com, 2019).
While Realism is all about representing events realistically and naturally, absurdism is about portraying the existential belief that life has no
inherent meaning, and therefore, nothing makes sense. Absurdist plays do not follow a conventional structure, characterized instead by their
unclear notion of time, cyclical plots, nonsensical dialogue, and the themes of isolation. However, the most important convention was that the
characters were always caught in hopeless and incomprehensible situations and as a result, were forced to commit repeated actions (Cash, 2020).
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